Naruto: Dream of Dragons
by MoonlightWolf16
Summary: Some people say that death is like falling asleep. I'm here to tell you that all of that is absolute nonsense. Death is painful, frightening, and lonely. I should know. I died. And for some absurd reason, I was given a second chance. This is the story of how I became Akina Morimoto, Kunoichi of Konoha. Naruto OC Reincarnation fic.
1. Prologue

I DO NOT own anything of Naruto or any mythology that you see in this story. I wish I did, because that would be awesome, but I don't. Everything belongs to their rightful owners, I only own my original characters including (Akina, Sora, Ryuujin, Tsubasa, etc.).

"Spoken words"

 _Thoughts_

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 **Prologue**

Some people say that death is peaceful, like falling asleep. Your eyelids feel heavy as they do at the end of those especially stressful days. Only this time when they shut, they will never open again. You just let go of the world around you as you fall "asleep", and then you feel like your floating on a cloud.

I'm here to tell you that all of that is absolute nonsense. Death is painful, frightening, and lonely. The pain is worse than the worst pain you can imagine. Worse than a broken bone, worse than the worst hangover you've ever had, and it most definitely does not feel like falling asleep. There is no bright light, no peaceful anything. Only the darkness and silent abyss greet you with death.

I should know. I died.

That's right, you heard me. I died.

Although, I didn't stay dead. That's the strange bit. Or at least up to that point. For some absurd reason, I was given a second chance. A chance to make my story worth telling to anyone who cared to listen. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll start at the beginning.

My name is Daisy NoLastName. I'm 15 years old, and I "survive" as a ward of the state by living in the foster-care system. This is my story. The story of how Daisy became Akina Morimoto, Kunoichi of Konoha.


	2. The Start of Something New

I DO NOT own anything of Naruto or any mythology that you see in this story. I wish I did, because that would be awesome, but I don't. Everything belongs to their rightful owners, I only own my original characters including (Akina, Sora, Ryuujin, Tsubasa, etc.).

"Spoken words"

 _Thoughts_

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 **Chapter 1 - The Start of Something New**

So my day started out just like any other, I was in a fight. I know, I sound like such a delinquent. But I promise this is for a good cause! A girl from my Science class, Ristie, was getting beaten again by Miss Popular herself. Although, how a cheerleader learned to throw a proper punch is beyond my normal realm of understanding.

"Let's go, slut! Time to see what happens when you pine after MY boyfriend!"

Yeah, this girl was so dramatic and unimaginative with her vernacular that it just kills me to not say something to her as I step in. I mean, no one should have to get punched in the face just because she looked at a guy for longer than a microsecond. I squared up to the Queen of the High School, Demanding Mandy. She faltered when she saw that someone would defy her usual authority over the female population of the freshman class.

"So I know that normally you would throw around more insults and attempt to knock someone's lights out, but how about we call it a day" I asked with just a hint of sarcasm. "I'm pretty sure that you don't want to ruin that perfect cheerleader brain of yours with anything other than unimaginative dance routines, so I think that's enough."

Now, I know what you might be thinking: "she doesn't know when to stop talking", or "she's about to get punched in the face for talking like that". I am all of 110 pounds of soft muscle whose only real way to cope with things beyond my control is through sarcasm, so talking seemed like the best option to go with for me.

I will admit that I was second guessing myself when I was the one getting beat up by the cheerleader though.

This is my life. High school is normally meant to be an escape for the kids who grow up in the foster-care system. The problem is that I don't fit in with anyone. I'm the "crazy orphan girl who reads Japanese comics" according to everyone at school. Naruto helped me get through the harsh reality that we live in. The fact that I could identify with him since he's an orphan as well is just a perk. At least with Naruto, he found out that his parents sacrificed themselves so that he could live on and become the hope that the world needed to defeat the darkness. My parents just didn't want me, I was found in a blanket by a pile of trash.

Life hasn't really dealt me a kind hand, but it's still my life. I'm just counting down the days until I become 18 and can create a new life for myself. A life that would be as inspiring as Naruto's. A life where I could be myself, be able to take self-defense and martial arts classes if I wanted, become a doctor to help people, and where I could find someone who understands me and my faults but still be my friend. I wanted to meet someone like Naruto.

Little did I know that I would get my wish sooner than I ever imagined.

Back in my miserable life, I was currently walking in the door to my foster home and I hear the usual yelling going on throughout the house. Our foster father, if you could call him a father, has a slight temper. He tends to get angry at little thing you get wrong, especially when he's drunk. When that happens, he also brings out his fists to the party.

Anyone could be his next victim, but he seemed to enjoy messing with our foster mother and me the most. Homes like this explain how I really developed my defense mechanism with sarcasm, but I refused to show how angry I was with swearing. I was once in a nice foster home when I was 8, and at the time, I swore worse than any sailor I had ever known, which is saying something considering the home was in a fishing town. My foster mother was compassionate and kind, but she could also bite your head off with her spitfire attitude if you crossed her. She was the one person I looked up to as an orphan. The one lesson I take to heart from all of her teachings: "don't let anyone make you swear, it shows them that they have won, and it shows that you're not very imaginative with your comebacks". So when I get angry, I refuse to swear, which tends to drive the drunken man crazy.

"Useless bitch, why can't ya do anything right? How'm I suppos'd ter relax with dis pigsty after I bust ma ass at work?"

 _Ugh! Even his voice is annoying!_

I assumed he was going after his wife just like normal, and his slurred words made me believe he was just about ready to pull out his fists. I paled when I heard a different voice respond to him.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry… I'll do b-better n-n-next time…"

The tiny stuttering voice threw me for a ringer in my brain. The voice belonged to a petite 7 year old girl who had only arrived last week to this hell house. I found myself running to the kitchen, and positioning myself in front of the shaking girl. I don't know what came over me, but my body just reacted. I had never felt as enraged as I did in this moment. Maybe it was because she was a child, maybe it was because she was so innocent. Either way, I knew that I wouldn't let this scum hurt her.

"Leave her alone!"

I found myself scared of this behemoth in front of me for the first time since I had moved into this awful house more than a year ago. I don't know if I was more terrified of what he would do since I had defied his authority, or more terrified for the little girl that I may not be able to protect.

"What did ya say? Y'think you can tell me wha t'do? I'll show ya," he slurred as he made his way towards me with a sneer on his face.

The next part is fuzzy for me even now. I remember a lot of pain whether it was from getting punched, getting hit with a beer bottle, or stabbed with the shards of it once it was broken was unknown to me. I do know that I was bleeding profusely. I can't even remember if I was able to defend myself, if I was able to get in a decent shot.

All I could focus on was the shrill scream that came from the ghastly frightened face of the child I had sworn to myself that I was going to protect and the beefy hand that closed around my windpipe. I welcomed the darkness as it ebbed at the edges of my vision.

 _Take me away from this hell… I just wish I could have met someone like Naruto…_ was my last though before the darkness was complete.

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 **Thump-thump… Thump-thump… Thump-thump…**

 _What was that sound?_

I couldn't see. I could barely move my limbs from my sides, I felt like I was in a cocoon, trapped without a way to get out of this dark prison. But for a prison, it was very warm and wet feeling. I know that doesn't sound like it should be comfortable, but it was, kind of like how you feel when you have a hot bath after a long day.

I have no concept of time in this place, but I do know that a lot of time has passed since I became aware of my situation. When you have nothing to do but wait, your mind begins to wander. It also means that when there is something to finally break up the monotone of waiting in darkness, you become so entranced with this beautiful distraction.

"…lo…u… I lo-…ch…"

At first I couldn't make out what was happening or what was being said but it sounded like it was filled with many emotions at once. Filled with…love…

"I love you so much."

I could finally hear the warm voice clearly. It was the first time someone had told me they loved me. Even the foster parents who were kind to me never said anything remotely close to that compassionate and protective phrase that I was hearing now. And with that previous thought, it became clear to me that I was not dead. I was in my new mother's womb!

Talk about existential crisis! How was this possible? Why was I given a second chance at life? So many questions, and I had no one to give me answers.

The days dragged on inside of my mother's womb, but the times when she would talk to me were the best moments ever. There was once a day that I heard a deep masculine voice as well as my mother's, who I would assume to be my father. Just this knowledge alone gave me such high hopes for my new life. I could hardly wait to see my new parents, or rather parents who actually wanted me.

My high mood didn't last though when there came a time when I was extremely depressed. I couldn't figure out my reason to be so sad though until I heard a piercing scream followed by sobbing. My mother was crying! What could have happened? It wouldn't be until much later that I realized my father's voice was no longer around.

So much time went by with hardly a sound from my mother. I began to think she didn't care about me anymore.

With that thought though, I felt something strange…

A giant amount of pressure was pulsing down on me, forcing me to go upside down and moving me…

 _Wait… I'm about to be born…again…_

I'll just skip over the gory details, but the fact remains that I am about to be born! I would finally be able to see my mother!

When I was finally out, the light was so bright that it burned my eyes when I tried to open them. Coming from a completely dark environment to a brightly lit one was quite the shock, but it was nothing compared to when my eyes finally adjusted and I saw her.

She was beautiful, even through all of the sweat and tears that was streaming down her angelic face. Her hair was surprisingly ghost-white, but I was willing to overlook it. Her unusual hair was long and graceful as it cascaded down her shoulders to stop midway down her torso. Her eyes were an iridescent silver not unlike a darkened mirror or reflective storm clouds that are waiting to smite you with its lightening.

Her loving smile melted my heart which had been frozen for my whole life, and I grew to love here even more. She rasped a few words that were lost to my stuffed ears, but I could read her cherry lips. "She's so beautiful."

 _I would have to take your word for it, Mother._

From what I could see, my skin was red, and I could hear a dainty cry which I was sure was coming from my immature vocal cords. I wondered if I looked like my mother…

My answer came in the voice of my sweet mother. "She has her father's eyes… but she will always stand out with her hair…" _So I do look like her!_

My thoughts were interrupted when a new set of hands took me from my mother's bosom and led me away from her. I wailed; I didn't want to leave her. However, as they took me away, sounds were becoming clearer and began to hear whispers of voices around me.

"She looks just like you, ya'know!"

That phrase… It sounded like "dattebayo" to my ears, but my brain told me it meant "ya'know"… Why was that phrase so familiar? Where had I heard it?

Now that I thought about it, all of the words they were speaking had an undertone of some other language. This was odd considering that my brain was switching it into something that I understood, English.

It wasn't until I got a good look at the new, very pregnant, woman who had said the familiar phrase that I understood how much trouble this new life could be for me. Her crimson locks flowed like blood down her shoulders and back till it ceased at the juncture of her knees. Indigo irises gazed at my infant self in admiration and kindness, showing how much compassion she possessed. Her face morphed into a familiar smile that I had seen on the face of her future son, who I admired very much.

This was Kushina Uzumaki. She was the mother of Naruto Uzumaki, and the carrier of the Nine Tailed Fox spirit. But…

"So, Tsubasa, what is our newest addition to Konoha going to be called?" the familiar woman asked.

My mother, Tsubasa, chuckled and gave the biggest grin I had ever seen as she answered Kushina. "Her name is Akina, Akina Morimoto."

I'm in the Naruto world!

 _Well, damn…_


	3. Malicious Fox and Mischievous Boy

"Spoken words"

 _Thoughts_

 **Chapter 2**

I could barely believe that I was in the Naruto world of ninjas, reborn as a child to someone who is the friend of the wife of the Fourth Hokage, Minato, and is the mother of the main character from the manga… _Whoa, try wrapping your mind around that!_

On the bright side, being an infant wasn't so bad. I can be lazy all day, not worry about chores, abusive foster-parents, school, or any other things. The downside though is that being a baby is filled with mundane monotony. All my body was capable of doing was eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom. Which is a whole other embarrassing story that I would rather not go into, I loathe diaper changes!

My Mother was absolutely, and impossibly, amazing! I never knew my first mother, but this one was better than all of my dreams of what a mother should be like. She showered me with affection, sang to me, read stories of Konoha's elite ninjas, chauffeured me around the village, and even talked to me. Well, I mean she already does that. But she talked to me like as if she knew I could understand her. To her credit, the conversations were mostly led by her ( _duh_ ), but I tried putting in a grunt or squeal when I deemed it appropriate.

Although if anyone from my previous life were to learn I squealed, I would never hear the end of it.

Tsubasa, my Mother, along with being friends with Kushina, future mother of Naruto, ended up also being friends with other significant people. She was friends with Mebuki Haruno, mother of Sakura, and Mikoto Uchiha, mother of Sasuke. All together, my Mother was friends with the children who are destined to be a part of the infamous Team 7 of Konoha. How this all happened, I will never know! I mean, our parents even arranged play dates for us. Well, Sakura and Sasuke did more playing since they were 6 months and 3 months respectively. I just tended to stare at them in amazement as they got along so well. Sakura really seemed to like me though, she always sat by me. All of this was just too ironic that I could hardly believe that I was not dreaming.

I did also learn that I was born on September 9th, which meant that I would be a month old when… **it** happens. The Kyuubi was something that I had thought about but had tried to avoid. Even as a child, I was hyper-aware of all things chakra. I knew that it was the energy that every living thing in this world had, and that ninjas used it to fight, but I never imagined being so sensitive to it. I figured that it must be because I never had this before that I am so conscious of the fact that I now have chakra.

This could mean that when the Kyuubi comes to attack, my senses could be overloaded with chakra to the point of being painful. How was I supposed to let my Mother know that this could happen to me?

And would my Mother even be at home? Mom happens to be a medical ninja who is a genius at saving lives, according to her. Even if she is on maternity leave, I doubt she would want to stand by while people are in danger.

Maybe that is what scares me the most.

I know that a lot of people died during the Kyuubi attack, but would my Mother be one of those casualties?

I personally don't see it happening, but it is a fear of mine, and I've only known my Mom for a couple of weeks. But she is pretty badass! She has dragons!

Yep! Dragons!

Tsubasa Morimoto has a summoning contract with the Dragons of Mount Ryuumoto, who just so happen to come around to the house every now and then to see my magnificent self and my Mom. Their names are Sora, her two children Ichigo and Nami, and the Leader once came to see me. His name is Ryuujin.

The dragons I have seen though weren't quite like the ones normally seen the other world, unless you were looking at pictures of Japanese dragons. These dragons didn't have wings! Mom told me that they all have an innate ability to manipulate the wind, or that they basically have at least two chakra elements: Wind Element, and something else, usually Fire or Water. They also have special abilities to speed up the healing of others they deem worthy of their gift. I'm not sure even Mom knows how they are able to do that.

Mom told me that next week we would be going to visit them in their home, meeting all the other dragons who help her out on missions. I'm not sure how that will work out though.

Today is October 9th.

I'm a month old today, and tomorrow is the birth of Naruto Uzumaki. But it is also the day that his parents die, along with many people of Konoha. And tomorrow is also the day of the Kyuubi Attack…

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"And I know that in a month you will have to be watched by Kushina or day care since I will be going on missions again. But don't worry! These will be missions that will be very short, no more than 48 hours, and they will be close to home."

I gave her a small smile. Just imagining Mom in action, healing others and being a badass, doesn't keep me from worrying about her. I had already lost my father before I met him, I didn't want to lose her too.

 _Wait…?_

 _What was that?_

There was enormous blast of air that shook the windows of the house… what could…

 _Oh, no…_

It first reached my infant ears as a low grumbling as one would hear from a waterfall in the distance, but it suddenly grew louder, more intense as it became the roar of a beast. Then a second sound pierced my ears more so than the roar… it was the screams.

Then I felt it, the onslaught of chakra which assaulted my senses. It became painful very quickly to my immature sensor capabilities. For the first time in my month of existence in this world, I cried. I screeched, hoping my Mom would understand. I could barely think though, everything was pain.

I was momentarily aware of Mom hollering something to a dragon that I had not realized she had summoned. There was no time to identify who it was though as our roof started to crumble away.

And suddenly there was a tail penetrating the roof of my home. All of this happened in fractions of a second, but the adrenaline from the pain was kicking in to the point that my adult consciousness could comprehend the events happening around me despite the speed. And the next half second, we were outside, now able to see the Kyuubi, the Nine Tailed Fox in all of its fiery fury, as it decimated Konoha. With simple sweeps of its tails, it demolished buildings, homes, and the lives within, and its powerful claws, it vanquished the lives of the shinobi sworn to protect the village.

"Sora! Where are Kushina and Minato?! How did the Kyuubi get out?!"

Before Sora could answer, another tail made its way towards our position atop a mangled building. We once again moved at what seemed to be the speed of light to a new position and now that we were further away from the Kyuubi, I was able to see that my Mom was the one holding me for dear life. Her visage was that of someone who had the weight of the world on her shoulders, but would fight like hell to defend it. I must have made a sound, because Mom seemed to hear me as she gazed at me with love and determination with just a dash of worry as well.

Who am I kidding? She looked just as scared as I was.

After she was through looking at me, I could see her gaze drift in the direction I knew Sakura's house to be in along with her Mother and Father, Mebuki and Kizashi Haruno. Her parents were civilians, so they would have no way to defend themselves, and their house was too close to the Kyuubi's path of destruction for my liking.

"Sora, get Akina back to Mount Ryuumoto. Keep her there until I come to get her."

 _What?! No!_

 _Don't take me away from Mom!_

"What are you going to do?" the dragon asked the very question I wanted answered.

"I'm going to do my job. Protect people like Mebuki and her family who need help to defend themselves. Then I'll head to the hospital to tend to the wounded. If I don't come to get Akina in 48 hours, you know what to do, right?"

The air around Mom became so heavy and dark that I wished for the thousandth time that I was in my old body so that I could hug her tightly in my arms and never let go. I can't lose her! I just got a new family! I was just beginning to call her "Mom". **She can't leave!**

"I promise you, friend. I will raise her as my own daughter."

 _NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!_ I wailed my heart out, but it did no good as we dissolved from the massacre in a puff of smoke. Now all I could see was mountains and an immense entrance to a cavern ahead of us.

 _No… no… no, no, no, no, no, no, no!_

 _This can't be it…_

 _It… it just can't be…_

My worst fears are becoming reality. _How am I meant to go on without my Mom?_

"Don't worry, little one. Your mother is a strong shinobi."

With her voice, I focused in on my surroundings. The mountain cavern that I initially had seen appeared to be dark and cold. But now as we walked through the entrance, it was as though a veil were lifted from my eyes. Beyond the entrance to Mount Ryuumoto was an entirely new world around me.

There are hardly any words which can accurately describe the beauty before me, there was nothing like this in the other world. The entrance to this new landscape before me were two mighty hills encrusted with greenery and vines which wrapped themselves around elegant carvings of dragons as they twisted and turned around the rocks of the sheer drops which marked them as gates. Beyond the gates, I could see grand architecture similar to that of traditional Japanese style palaces, but more than 5 times the scale. Everything was enormous in this new place I had found myself in. Surrounding the grounds were vast expanses of hills and forests with mountains in the far distance, and the majestic palace, which I would assume to be the "royal" palace, sat pristinely in the center of this village of dragons.

I had no words to describe this, but I would go for breathtaking.

"This, little one, is Mount Ryuumoto."

 _Yeah, kind of figured that out on my own._

Sora took me with her towards the main palace which took me by surprise, I didn't think that she was that high in the hierarchy of the dragons. I knew that all summoning creatures had their own system for who's in charge of all those under their domain, kind of like how the toads had a Sage Toad and they had Gamabunta who was the boss. How all the other animals did this, I had no idea, just guesses.

Within the palace, we continued to navigate through the halls which were built for large creatures like the dragons, but were completely oversized for my human self. This went on until we reached an immense chamber that I assumed to be the throne room of some sort. In this chamber was a dragon of gigantic proportions, nearly the size of a "small" building in downtown New York. He had scales of glistening gold which became iridescent in the firelight, dark aurum horns atop his head, ghostly-pale hair which waved gently in an unforeseen wind, and tangerine eyes which could pierce into your soul. This imposing dragon was impressive to say the least, one who seemed like a somewhat familiar dragon.

"My wife, what news do you bring of Tsubasa?"

 _Hold the phone! Wife!?_

"It is nothing good, Ryuujin. The Kyuubi has escaped Kushina's seal and wreaks havoc upon all of Konoha. Tsubasa decided to stay behind and charged me with becoming godmother to her child if anything were to happen to her in battle."

 _Well that was the first time I was hearing that!_

Ryuujin gazed into space as he thought long and hard over the situation at hand. "What else did she say?"

Grimly, Sora replied, "She also said if she did not return within 48 hours of my leaving her, to follow through with my promise and assume she is dead."

"Then all we can do is wait..."

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During the long wait for Mom, I had the opportunity to know Sora a little better, and observe her beauty as well. She was a dragon about two-thirds the size of Ryuujin with similar features to him except that her hair didn't end on her head, but traveled all down her back and to her winding tail. Her coloration was also different in that she resembled the color turquoise which leaned slightly more toward the green shade, her hair was snowy as well, and she had smoldering copper eyes.

It turns out that dragons have another ability that allows them to hide in plain sight, which if this is true here might explain why nobody ever saw dragons in my old world. They have the ability to use their chakra not only for elemental purposes, but also for transformations. And by transformations, I mean into humans. She looked beautiful before as a dragon, but as a human, she was enchanting. She still had her same coloration, but if I could compare her to someone I knew from my old world, I would say that she looks like the anime version of Carla Gugino.

 **POOF!**

"Raiga! What news?"

The messenger didn't want to answer. Anyone could tell from the way he refused to look in anyone's eyes what news he brought, but I didn't want to believe it.

"Tsubasa is…"

Please don't say it.

"She is dead."

 _No._

"She died trying to defend her friend Mebuki and her family, but they all perished. Also, Kushina and Minato are gone as well. All that remains of them is their son, Naruto Uzumaki, who is now the container for the Kyuubi."

 _This is all wrong, wrong! Mom is not supposed to die, and neither was Sakura or her family! How could this all have changed?_ I alerted Sora to my discomfort with this conversation by wailing as loud as I could for the loss of my Mom. I wanted out of there.

However, it was a man who picked me up from my makeshift crib, a man who resembled Hugh Jackman if he had long gold hair and amber eyes. I was so startled that, I ceased crying despite the fat tears rolling down my cheeks.

"With this great loss, Little Akina is the last who would become a summoner to us dragons. We must raise her as one of us, and teach her our ways. As was promised by my wife to Tsubasa, my family shall adopt Akina into our home with love. She is now your newest princess."

 _Wait, this all going too fast! I-I can't!_

"Welcome to the family, little one."

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 **8 Years Later…**

I can honestly say that despite my initial thoughts about living in a chain of forested mountains with dragons for family, my childhood was the best that I could have hoped for in an adopted family or any family rather.

Sora became my second Mom, to the point where I do call her Mom. It took a while for me to heal from the loss of my other Mom, Tsubasa. But with time, I was able to see that I loved my new family as much as I loved Tsubasa, and I refused to give any bit of it up. Ryuujin was the best Dad I could ever have asked for. I never knew either of my fathers, so he was easier for me to come to love. His gentleness around me as a child was endearing and his advice was the greatest. Plus, he was the best partner when it came to pulling pranks on others! Ichigo and Nami were the best older siblings a girl could ask for. Sure they were annoying, but that's in the job description (they even showed it to me).

My childhood was better than I could have imagined after I heard of my Mother's death by the hands of Kyuubi. I had changed a lot as well. My once baby length alabaster-white hair had grown significantly, as was custom for the females of all dragon clans, and it reached the small of my back. I also realized that I looked just like a younger version of my Mother with cobalt eyes instead of Mother's silver. In a way, my appearance was my own silent reminder that while I still miss my Mother very much, I still have her love with me where ever I go. Along with learning that lesson, I learned so much from the dragons themselves. Some of the things I learned will be exciting to show others, which leads me to what is happening now.

Today is the day that I join the Academy.

While my childhood had been spent on Mount Ryuujin, I still had a place in Konoha according to the Third Hokage, the leader of the village after Minato died. Both Mom and Dad decided that I needed to interact with other "human" children my own age, so here I was at the front gates of the Academy, anxious to go in, but also nervous as hell to go in.

As I kept debating with myself, I suddenly was knocked forward by what I imagined was someone who was late, kind of like I was. I stumbled towards the ground, but with my reflexes, I quickly put my hands in front of me and landed in a push-up position.

"Sorry, ya'know!"

 _No way._

I turned towards the culprit who had bumped me as I stood again. He appeared to be my age, but his goofy grin made him seem younger, like he had no care in the world. Sunbeam colored hair mopped haphazardly on his head and his bangs sat above deep cerulean eyes which sparkled with mischief. Whisker-like birthmarks adorned his bright face as he continued to smile and observe the stranger in front of him: me.

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki! And one day, I'm gonna be the Hokage!"

I was so stunned that I was actually meeting Naruto for the first time that I forgot to react right away. But I quickly remedied that by giving the most encouraging smile I could muster and held out my hand to him.

"Pleased to meet you, Naruto. My name is Akina Morimoto, and I think you will be a great Hokage one day!"

 _This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship!_


	4. Emo Friends and Blood

"Spoken words"

 _Thoughts_

 **Chapter 3**

"W-What?"

His eyes were practically popping out of his skull and his mouth would catch flies if he left it open for much longer; he couldn't seem to understand that I had agreed with him. I smiled at how adorable he was, but inside I was mourning the fact that he could hardly anyone believed in him. I could remember viewing the judgmental eyes through the perspective of Naruto in the show. It reminded me all too well of the eyes I would see from some of the kids from school as well as those from some of the less kind foster parents I've had.

Summoning up more courage and confidence than his previous statement, Naruto puffed out his chest and spoke with a little anger. "You're not very funny, ya'know! I'm going to be stronger than anyone else and be the greatest Hokage ever! That way everyone will look up to me, even you!"

"But I already do."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I mean you are taller than I am, but I did mean the other way too, just so you know. I know I just met you, but I get this feeling that you won't give up until you achieve the title Hokage. Perseverance is a powerful thing, as well as hope, and you have both in spades."

"Per-perse-what do you mean? Are you making fun of me?" he asked with a suspicious look in his narrowed eyes.

I had to laugh at this. I forgot how adorable he could be. Even from my fading memories of my previous life, I could remember everything about Naruto (which doesn't sound as creepy in my head, I can guarantee that).

"I just want to be your friend. I don't know anyone else here, so I want to know one person in this place before we start. So, what do you say?" I hold out my hand to him with my most sincere smile, hoping he understands that I am being honest with him. "Will you be my first friend?"

With a face that was between gob-smacked and hope, he quickly gazed in my eyes for something. I wasn't sure what he was looking for, but Naruto seemed to find it since in the next second, he gave his signature grin.

"Of course we can be friends, ya'know!"

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Meeting Naruto was the best thing that could have possibly happened to me on my first day of the Academy, or even the first week. I quickly realized that everyone knew I was different, not only because of my white locks, but because of not being raised within Konoha's walls. There were some who were welcoming like Choji, Hinata, and Shikamaru (though I think it was more because he didn't care one way or the other). The kids were wary of me, and of Naruto as well, and maybe a little of it was because we both were together most of the time.

I knew that Naruto would be an awesome friend, but I don't think I realized how much he would matter to me. I never had any friends in my other life that I can recall, but he was sweet to me and loved that I wanted to spend time with him. We would also prank people together. Now that was fun! There was this one time that we broke into Iruka's apartment when we knew he wouldn't be home and set up a door trap. We had a bucket of ice water on standby above his front door so that when he next opened the door, he had a chilly welcome home. Not one of Naruto's most imaginative pranks, but we all have to start somewhere. Plus, seeing Iruka's face when he suddenly got the chills was hilarious!

Despite this unwelcome welcoming to Konoha, Naruto and I were quickly becoming the best of friends. Though it had only been a few months now, we felt like we had grown up together our whole lives. Which I'm not sure if I should count that as a compliment since I had read a vast majority of the manga and knew many things about his past; it could be considered "unintentional stalking" since I didn't even know that he existed until I was reborn.

One thing about Naruto that no one can ever forget is his love for ramen.

"You mean you've never had ramen!? What's wrong with you? Ramen is the food of the gods! You can't just not try it!"

I might have groaned internally. I had tried ramen once in my old life, but it wasn't good, and it was super salty. "Okay, okay. I'll try it! But it better be good, Naruto, or else," I threatened him playfully.

While Naruto ordered for himself, I decided to play it safe by ordering some pork ramen for myself. It wasn't long before our bowls were handed to us by the owner, Teuchi, and they looked nothing like what I thought we would be getting. My bowl had a full helping of noodles with dark broth surrounding them. On top of the noodles was a spread of foods. There were two hard-boiled egg slices, pieces of pork, scallions, and other interesting things. One of these which I did recognize: narutomaki, or fish paste with a red swirl inside it.

I always thought it was funny how Naruto's name was both a homage to this little treat and to Kushina's home, the Land of Whirlpools, since his name could also mean maelstrom.

But back to the ramen.

I was actually excited to taste this stuff (believe it or not).

Just to annoy Naruto, I slowly raised my chopsticks to my bowl, got a few noodles to taste, and at snail's pace they made their way to my mouth.

"Eat them already!"

Internally giggling at my achievement, I took a bite of the noodles and started to slurp them up. I deliberated for a few moments before I swallowed and turned to Naruto with an impassive expression.

Naruto was not amused by my teasing. "And?"

"This is the food of the gods."

I quickly clamped my hands over my ears as he hooped and hollered in victory. He even ran to the street and back in his excitement, to the dismay of some passersby. Once he was done with his victory, he went into a grand debate with himself about which ramen was the greatest and its characteristics of flavor. As I watched this spectacle, only half-listening, I wondered how great of a ninja he would be if he had this much interest in his studies at the Ninja Academy.

Speaking of which, it wasn't until after a month of sitting through boring lecture about chakra (which I already knew about) that I was able to properly meet the rest of the future Konoha Nine.

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 **Flashback…**

"Hey, you with the white hair!"

 _Seriously, you couldn't come up with something better._

I turned around to see most of the future rookies together as they walked towards Naruto and I.

"What do you want?" I asked with a hint of suspicion. For weeks, I had nothing from these guys (except from Hinata). Now, they decide to introduce themselves?

"My name is Kiba Inuzuka, and this is my partner, Akamaru," he gestured to the adorable puppy on top of his head. The little guy gave an excited bark at the exchange.

Then, one by one, the others began introducing themselves. There was Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, Ino, and Shino. All of them were here except for Sasuke, which didn't surprise me one bit.

Kiba once again spoke for all of them when he asked, "We just wanted to know why we've never seen you before the Academy. And why you smell weird?"

I'm guessing that last one was reserved for just Kiba and Akamaru.

I wasn't sure how much I should tell them though. Most of my life has to be kept a secret for my family's sake until I am strong enough to fight for myself and work alongside them in battle. Dragons are known as a myth for a reason.

"My father died before I was born and my Mother died when I was a month old, so I was raised outside of the village by some family friends. Lord Hokage knew this from the very beginning and said I could come back to train to be a ninja if I wanted to, so here I am," I bluntly explained. I was avoiding the last question Kiba asked by telling them about my parents. If I weren't avoiding that topic, I wouldn't have told them all this soon in knowing them. While I may have some remaining knowledge of what happens in the manga, I don't think I know them that well.

Yeah, that's another thing! My memories of my past life are fading away. I still have some knowledge that I was desperate to keep with me: who Naruto is, why I became the badass girl that I am (I may be biased though), and my death. No matter how hard it would be to remember dying, I wanted to remember why I was given a second chance. I wanted to cling on to the belief that it was because I helped protect that girl. I wanted to believe it was because despite my sarcasm and cynicism, that I was a good person.

"I-I'm s-s-so sorry…"

A stuttering soft voice broke me from my dismal thoughts. I had to smile at Hinata's sincerity and compassion. She was always one of my favorite characters. Her determination to change herself and become the better version of who she is always inspired me to do better and be better in my previous life.

"Thank you, Hinata. But it was a long time ago. My guardians raised me though, so I wasn't ever truly alone.

"HEY! You never answered the other question!"

 _Ugh!_ Her voice is so screechy.

Ino Yamanaka: the flower princess herself. In the manga, Sakura and her were the best of friends after a little hurdle with Sasuke being involved. I thought again how different things might be if Sakura were still alive…

"I don't know why I would smell funny," I replied. "To me, I smell normal. You smell like over-ripe flowers that unwontedly cling to everything it surrounds."

Don't even ask me why I replied with a comeback. Again, sarcasm is my only defense, for now. When we get to sparring in our second year, I would dominate in a battle against Ino and her self-righteous attitude. As I watched her though, I could practically see the steam blow out of her ears as her face became cardinal red from anger and maybe a hint of embarrassment too.

Before she could get in a word though, I beckoned Naruto to leave with me. "Come on, Naruto, let's blow this popsicle stand!"

"…Do what?"

 _Ah! My idioms are of no use to me here._

 **End Flashback**

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I sighed with boredom as I continued to sit through Iruka's lecture. It had been around four months since I had arrived in Konoha, and my relationships with the rest of the rookies haven't really improved since then. Hinata and I do hang out occasionally, but her father doesn't really approve of her having friends outside of the Hyuuga clan. The times that we are together are usually spent in a new training ground so that we can spar and have girl talks as well. We even talked about how she admired Naruto, but no one can blame her for that, he is truly incredible.

The others tend to avoid me and my sarcastic behind. Which I don't mind as much as I thought I would when I first came here. I have all the friends that I need in Naruto and Hinata.

But there was one person that I had yet to meet.

Sasuke Uchiha.

I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. I know that Naruto and him have a big rivalry during their time with Team 7, but with Sakura out of the picture, who knows what's going to happen.

There is this nagging feeling though, like as if something bad is going to happen, but due to my memory loss, I can't remember what it is. I only recall that it centers around Sasuke.

As the day comes to an end, Naruto runs off to run a prank by himself for once, which leaves me to walk home myself. We actually live only a block away from each other so we tend to have dinner with each other for most if not all of our evenings. Usually I am the one cooking since all Naruto has is ramen. While I agree that the ramen of this world is much better than the bland packaged stuff from the stores in the other world, I do not agree that it is something I would want to eat every single night.

Thought of what to cook for dinner in my mind distracted me from everything around me, including the person who was directly in front of me, also not paying attention.

 **BAM!**

 _Ouch…_

I had collided with someone with a very hard head. Ears ringing, I prepared a glare and a few choice words for the person who might have just given me a migraine. But to my surprise, the person who was across from me was none other than Sasuke.

Hearing voices in the distance, I instantly realized what was going on and quickly grabbed Sasuke's hand and flashed us to a small alley way, away from prying eyes. Sasuke looked disoriented from the ordeal, but as he was about to comment, I held my hand out and silently told him to wait and be quiet.

In a matter of seconds, we could hear a gaggle of fangirls pass by our hiding spot with love on their mind for the boy I was concealing away from them. After waiting for a few more moments after we could no longer hear them did we breathe sighs of relief.

"How did you do that?"

"Just remembered that this is a good hiding spot. Naruto and I use it a lot to get away from the ninjas we've pissed off with our—"

Sasuke looked annoyed now. "Not the hiding spot. How did you get us here so fast?"

"Oh… That's a little more complicated. And it involves a few secrets only my friends are allowed to hear."

"Tell me."

 _So demanding!_ I don't remember Sasuke being this talkative in the manga, but then again, how much do I really remember anyways.

"Well, for one, you're not my friend, and two, we've never even been introduced to each other…"

A hand was held in front of my face as he stubbornly looked at me with determination in his eyes. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha."

 _He must really want to learn my secrets… Woah, scratch that, that sounded a bit wrong!_

"I'm Akina Morimoto. I'm still not telling you how I did that."

"You don't have to. You can show me in a spar."

A chuckle was heard from a distance behind us and we turned in surprise thinking it was another fangirl.

Instead, our eyes beheld the beautiful Mikoto Uchiha, Sasuke's mom, and one of my Mom's best friends. She carried with her a few bags of groceries that I assume she was taking with her to the Uchiha compound.

"Now, now, Sasuke. That's no way to thank a new friend for saving you."

Desperately trying to not burst out laughing at the fact that Sasuke had a pout on his face from being reprimanded by his mother in front of me and the fact that Mikoto realized Sasuke was running from fangirls, I gave Sasuke a cheeky grin.

"That's right, I haven't heard any 'thank you' yet."

Mikoto smiled even wider. "To make up for my son's rudeness, I must insist that you have dinner with our family."

 _Ummm…_

That was how I turned up at the entrance to the Uchiha compound ten minutes later, in complete bewilderment at the fact I was going to see the Uchiha family and have dinner with them. I will definitely spare you the embarrassing details of the awkward dinner. I will say though that Fugaku, Sasuke's dad, really didn't like me and my sense of humor.

Personally, I think it might be because he was born without one, but that's just my opinion. Itachi was nice enough, but he was fairly quiet. I also say that Sasuke became a completely different person when he was around his older brother. His entire attitude brightened, and he was smiling! Smiling! He even acted nicer towards me, which prompted some niceties from me as well. I'm not sure we could be called friends yet, but I had a feeling we were on our way to becoming close.

We were so engrossed in each other's company, we didn't even notice Mikoto, Fugaku, and Itachi had left the dinner table and let us get to know each other. It was only when Mikoto came back in and told us it was starting to get dark outside that we noticed how long we had been talking for.

At the gates now, Sasuke looked like he didn't want me to leave, which was again so surprising to me. I was seeing a whole new side to his personality.

"I know that you only share secrets with friends, but would you be my friend? Everyone else just fangirls or thinks I'm too important to approach me."

Wow, here was **the** Sasuke Uchiha asking to be **my** friend. It makes sense though that he would be lonely. Nobody talks to him except the teachers when they give him praise for his "geniousness".

"Sure, Sasu-chan. We can be friends," I grinned evilly.

Sasuke groaned at the nickname. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Maybe," I chuckled in response.

Little did I know that Sasuke would grow to become one of my best friends, right up towards the top of the list with Naruto. Over the course of the next few months, Sasuke and I would grow so close that we could consider each other siblings. He was the brother that I was always wanted, and I was the sister he was annoyed (but secretly glad) to have.

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Sasuke and I had been training together on a day that Naruto decides he needed to really plan an elaborate prank for some unsuspecting Jonin. The only trouble was that we were training so hard that we didn't realize the late hour until the sun was almost down.

"Why don't you come on over for dinner? I'm sure Mother would be upset if I didn't invite you after keeping you busy this late."

Agreeing without a hint of hesitation, we made our way to the Uchiha compound with all haste. No one who wanted to live should ever be late to dinner with Mikoto on purpose, so we ran like hell was chasing us to get there.

There was a moment though when Sasuke stopped running suddenly. I noticed right away, and also felt an ominous chakra presence nearby as I turned around to silently ask Sasuke what was the matter.

"I thought there was someone…"

I glanced in the direction that held his gaze. It was the top of a lamp pole which was silhouetted by the full moon. _Wait… this looks familiar… but why?_

"Let's just get to the compound quickly. I'm sure your mother is getting worried about us being out so late."

With an ominous feeling in my gut, I urged Sasuke on to his home. As we approached the gates to the compound, everything was silent. There were no animals calling, no children playing, no adults laughing, nothing at all. The compound seemed to be deserted; there weren't even any lanterns burning. There should be people setting up for the festival tomorrow night, and…

That's when I first saw them.

"Sasuke, we need to leave!"

"Why…?"

His onyx eyes widened beyond belief as he saw them too.

Bodies. Bodies of everyone he knew, many he had introduced to me as well. There were men, women, children, babies… this was awful!

The earth was crimson with the blood pooling around the many bodies which littered the grounds of the Uchiha compound. There were even bodies on top of the roof of some buildings. Weapons also laid beside some of those who I knew were ninjas, there had been a battle here, and the Uchiha were losing.

Sasuke tensed up and seemed to be putting on a brave face for me. "We need to go to my house."

I just nodded as Sasuke grabbed my hand and led me to his home. We ignored the corpses around us and continued running for our destination, unsure of what would be waiting for us.

When we arrived, the house was silent except for hushed voices at the back of the home. We both raced towards the right door.

"Father! Mother!"

"Sasuke… Don't come in…"

 **THUD! THUD!**

At this point, I was beyond terrified of what would be on the other side of this door. I wasn't brave enough to open the door, so Sasuke's shaking hand pushed it himself and we saw three people in the room. We quickly realized what had happened.

 _Fugaku and Mikoto were dead…_

 _They were dead…_

I could barely process how Sasuke must feel at this point when the third figure moved to face us, bringing our attention to him. He was easily recognized when the moonlight glistened over his grim face.

"Brother! Father and Mother are…!" Sasuke was panicking. "Why?! Why?! Who the hell… this…"

Sasuke was faltered when we both heard a "thunk" noise of a shuriken impacting the door behind us. Groaning in sudden pain, Sasuke's hand tightened around mine as he looked to his older brother.

"Foolish little brother…"

I gazed at Itachi with dread as he opened his blood red eyes.

Suddenly, the environment around me melted away, and I was no longer in the Uchiha compound with Sasuke. I was surrounded by nothingness. It was just like dying, except there was no pain. I had yet to realize that I was trapped in my own personal nightmare.

A nightmare that I couldn't escape from.

At first, I couldn't hear anything. Steadily though, as if coming to the surface of this realm, I could hear them. I could hear their screams. They were indistinguishable from one another but they all cried for help and screeched out my name.

Now screams I recognized started to fill the air, I could hear Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata calling out for me to help them. I tried to run towards the sound of their cries, but I fell over suddenly. When I finally put my hands under myself to get back up again, I was met with a sight I can only describe as hell. In the distance, I could see children being beaten within an inch of their lives by men and women I recognized as the foster parents who would beat, slander, and scorn all those the state put with them. I could hear their laughter as they enjoyed watching the suffering they were inflicting, gazing admiringly at the blood pouring from the children. And right next to me, were the lifeless eyes of those who I could not help. Among them was the little girl I had died for, her face being the only thing I could identify, everything else was too degraded and butchered to be recognizable.

Swallowing down vomit, I tried to get up so that I could help all those who were being hurt, but I couldn't move. The ground held my ankles hostage as it continued to slowly engulf me in its clutches. As I struggled, the cries of my friends grew to a roar as they struggled with unknown horrors, and I realized that I might not be able to save them. That doubt began to compound itself and eat away at me, because how could I save anyone when I couldn't even save a little girl from living out her life like she should have.

I vaguely remember my tortured screams as I hear my friends dying, and a distant voice announce something about 48 hours before my world began to go dark around the edges. I fought against the darkness this time, hoping against all hope that I could still save my friends from their agony, but no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't gain an inch. I was sinking further and further into the depths of this realm, and I realized that this obsidian abyss had won.

And I was drowning.

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 **Author's Note:**

Sorry for not having as much of Naruto in this chapter. I kind of needed to show her interactions with everyone else more, and plus that one day with the Uchiha clan...

But also, I just wanted to thank everyone for the support you have shown by favoriting, following, and reviewing my first fanfiction. It really is a huge motivation to continue writing! Thank you all so much!

Please keep it up, and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know with a review. :)


	5. Aftermath and Graduation

"Speaking"

 _Thoughts_

 **Chapter 4**

It was the sounds that brought me back first.

The soft cries of someone next to me.

The sounds of muttered medical terms.

That's how I knew that I was in Konoha's hospital. How many days it had been though since that day: I didn't know. My gut wrenched in thought of what happened when I was last conscious. Itachi had killed everyone! Everyone except…

 _Where was Sasuke?! How was he doing? Was he hurt? Who was looking out for him? Why would Itachi do this?_

I had so many questions, and no one to ask since I was aware of the fact that I was in an induced coma via Mangekyo Sharingan. It was one thing that I wished that I couldn't remember from both my previous life and from now, but it was still there. The images I saw, the screams I heard, and my helplessness to do anything about it. It was my worst fear, the one way to truly torture my psyche.

My paradise had been shattered.

Konoha was meant to be a safe place. A place where Ryuujin and Sora said I would be able to grow up without any fear of persecution or harm. Well, I had certainly been harmed by a monster.

 _Maybe I'm not taking things seriously…_

I began to think back to my life so far, and I realized how lucky I was. Mom had died, which I will never forget, but I still had a family. Ryuujin, who became the one and only father figure I had ever had. Sora, the most compassionate second mother I could have hoped to have for myself. Ichigo, the annoying but lovable and serious older brother that I always wanted. And Nami, the gentle older sister who knew what to say to cheer me up and make me smile. I really wanted my family with me right now.

And I realized again: I was so lucky. Sasuke didn't have this anymore.

I could feel my tears slowly trailing down my face, even in my sleep.

"Akina?"

 _Sasuke!_

Desperate to see if Sasuke was okay, I attempted to breach the surface of my consciousness. Scrunching the muscles in my face, I forced my stiff eyelids to fold and open themselves so that I could see him for myself.

The light was irritating to my drowsy eyes, and everything around me was blurred from dizziness as well. I blink a couple of times to clear my vision and gaze at a checkered ceiling with azure borders. I was pleasantly surprised by the color in the room. I always thought hospitals would be stark white and smell of antiseptics, but I was glad I was wrong. As my focus shifted around the room, I became aware of the person sitting next to me with a relieved look on their face.

It took me a few moments to realize that this was Sasuke. His micro-expressions showed how tired he was, but it was more than that. He had worry lines present under his eyes, his posture was that of a tortured animal, and his hands were shaking ever so slightly like as if he knew they were shaking but was trying to suppress the impulse.

"You're awake!"

"Hi," I replied, though my voice was a little croaky from not using it for a while.

 _Yeah, how am I awake?_

It shouldn't be possible. I remember that Tsunade was the only one to be able to revive a person who had been under the influence of the Mangekyo Sharingan since their mind was in a constant state of an induced coma due to the aftershocks of the mental torture. Tsunade wasn't in the village at this point, so how was I awake?

I look once again at Sasuke, who hadn't said anything for a little while I was trying to think of how it was possible to be awake.

"Sasuke, how are you?"

He held his head up and looked at me with misty eyes and an unbelieving expression marring his face. "How can you even ask me that? You're in a hospital!"

"Really, I had no idea."

"Don't do that! Not right now!"

"What's wrong? I can't help unless you let me in, Sasuke."

Glaring at the wall away from me, it looked like he was trying really hard to not cry or scream at me. I don't know why he was angry with me, I just wanted to know that he was okay despite his family being slaughtered… _Okay, that sounded better in my head the first time._

"Look, Sasuke, I'm sorry. I should have known that you're not okay. You just lost your family, but if you want—"

"Just shut up for a minute."

The way he demanded me to be quiet with an equally hushed tone that had an angry edge to it startled me. But I guess I could understand why he would be angry. I was being insensitive.

"Do you know how close I was to losing everyone?"

 _Everyone? But he did…_

He chuckled exasperatedly as he saw my confused face. "You idiot."

 _Wha—_

"I was so close to losing everyone, but I didn't. I didn't lose my sister. But because of my insane brother, she was tortured and unconscious for 3 days. I could have lost her before she knew that she was the sister that I never wanted, but needed, now more than ever. That's why I'm upset."

…

 _Okay, wow._

That's the most words that have spilled out from Sasuke's mouth than I had ever heard come from him! **EVER!** I'm a little shocked, but not as shocked as I was by the content of his little speech.

"You mean I'm not the devil incarnate to you? That's my take away from your little speech. Is that right? Tell me if I'm getting warm or not."

This time, Sasuke full on laughed. I'm sure that we would be a sight if anyone were to see this right now: the boy who lost his family 3 days ago laughing and the girl who was just there teasing him. Hopefully anyone passing by didn't think we were crazy, because a white straightjacket just would not look good on me with my white hair. It is just too much white.

When Sasuke had finally settled down, he looked up at me with an amazed smirk on his smug face. "You're something else."

"Is that an insult or a compliment? Because if it's an insult, I want you to come closer so I can bop you on the head."

Holding his hands up in surrender, he smiled even bigger until his face grew somber in a few seconds. I instantly knew what he was thinking of: Itachi.

I sighed, knowing that this conversation needed to happen eventually. "How are you? No jokes, no avoiding the subject or any other tactic you usually pull, just… how are you?"

Eyes refusing to meet mine, he quietly answered, "I feel so weak."

I went to disagree, but he beat me to the punch line.

"I was so helpless to do anything, I couldn't even protect you from Itachi! I need to get stronger, so that I can beat him! I will not let him get away with this!"

 **"HEY!"**

Sasuke's head finally snapped up to look me in the eyes. He was startled by my yelling at him: good.

"Do you really want to become like him? Because that's what you will have done if you go out and try to kill him! You will be killing the only blood family you have left," I initially shouted at him before softened my voice again. "The best way to get revenge against someone like him who was trying to tear our lives apart is to live a good life. Show him that his actions don't change who you are, and they never will. Be Sasuke Uchiha, brother of Akina Morimoto, not Sasuke Uchiha, killer of his brother."

For a few moments, Sasuke said nothing to me. Then he looked up with his usual smirk, "So I should be known as your brother and not as a badass ninja? I'm not sure that I like the sound of that."

I puffed my cheeks in frustration. "Hey! I'll have you know that title is very prestigious and is not given lightly to just anyone. So, why not flaunt it? And I'm pretty sure you need to at least have graduated from the Academy before you can call yourself badass. Stop jumping the gun!"

Silence, then…

We both burst out laughing at our own ridiculousness. And this continued until a nurse **finally** came in to check on me. She certainly gave us strange looks considering we were laughing like hyenas after we had just witnessed a massacre.

 _Oh, well! Hand over the straightjacket!_

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Over the past few weeks following the massacre, people looked at Sasuke and me a little differently, but we just brushed them off. The condolences were getting old too. I mean, don't get me wrong! It's nice that people are considerate enough to say sorry to us, but we wanted to move on with our grief, not revisit it almost every single day.

Naruto was the only one who treated us the same. And when I mean the same, I mean that he and Sasuke were still bitter rivals with each other, no matter how hard I tried to get them to become civil with each other. All I would get in response to this is a "no way in hell" from Naruto and a typical "hn" from Sasuke.

 _Work with me a little!_

Despite my efforts, they refused to budge in terms of getting along. So every time there was a sparring session, and Iruka pitted them against each other, they seemed to make it their own personal mission to beat the other into submission. Usually Sasuke won, but Naruto would have little victories. Like one time he finally landed a punch on Sasuke, and another time, he was able to fake him out once… baby steps…

I was trying to work with Naruto and Sasuke, but again, they refused to work with each other so I had to divide my attentions between the two of them.

 _This is going to be exhausting!_

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 **4 Years Later…**

 _FINALLY!_

It was here: Graduation exams.

I was so excited for Graduation to happen and get under way, and this was for multiple reasons. One would be that this meant we would be assigned teams, which I was really hoping I didn't mess things up too badly by being here, and two would be because it would be the start of everything. Or at least everything that I used to remember.

I still didn't understand how I could remember everything about Naruto as a person, but I couldn't remember other things. Not the things that happen in the future to him, or anyone else. Granted, being a foster kid, I didn't get to read all of the manga since there were some school libraries that had it and those that didn't when I moved around. But I remember that there was a war. What the war was about and who was on each side, I couldn't say. I also didn't remember what events were canon! I had a vague idea of what was to come, but nothing that I would bet my life on. I remember something about a bridge in the not so distant future, but that's about it.

 _UGH! This is so frustrating!_

I know some things have changed, but now I don't have any knowledge so that I could potentially help that change for the better. With some luck though, I'm hoping that I can at least help out in my own way. I had been training for this ever since I knew that I wanted to be a ninja. I had been training with my family, at the Academy, with Naruto and Sasuke, and I have been training in secret as well. I wanted to be the one who could protect and help my loved ones, not someone who needs saving.

And graduating from the Academy is the first step.

But we still had one more day before that would happen.

Right now, our entire class was waiting in our classroom for Iruka. All of us 12 year olds ninja prospects. Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba (with Akamaru), Ino (annoying as ever), Hinata, Shino, and grumpy as ever Sasuke were all here. There was just one exception: Naruto.

 **POOF!**

The sound grabbing everyone's attention, the smoke cleared to reveal our sensei, Iruka, and Naruto, who was all tied up. He didn't look happy to get caught, but when he saw my exasperated expression at not being invited to pull off a prank with him, he pouted and looked to Iruka who had already started lecturing him.

"I'm at the end of my rope, Naruto. You failed the graduation test last time, and the time before that. Tomorrow you've got another chance, and you're messing up again!" You could practically see the brain aneurism begin to form from the blood vessels that were bulging on his forehead in his frustration.

Naruto never cared about getting lectured, and true to form, he scoffed at Iruka and looked away from him. Needless to say, this didn't impress Iruka.

"Fine!" He turned to everyone else and declared, "Because you missed it, Naruto, everyone will review the Transformation Jutsu!"

Complaints were heard from practically everyone in the room, and harsh words and comments were thrown Naruto's way as everyone lined up to take their turns with the Transformation Jutsu.

Somehow, I was put in the start of the line with Sasuke behind me, then Naruto, then the other Konoha 9 teams. It's like fate wanted Team 7 to happen.

"Akina Morimoto."

 _Here we go._

Making the correct hand sign, I channeled my chakra easily to recreate the image in my mind with my body. A puff of smoke appeared, and as it dissipated, everyone could see that I had succeeded in transforming into a carbon copy of Iruka.

"Transformed into me… Good!"

With a smirk on my face, I transformed back and turned around to look at Naruto's disgruntled face. I gave him an encouraging smile and tried to silently convey to him a hearty "good luck". Of course, I knew that Naruto had no problem with the Transformation Jutsu. He used it all the time in his pranks, especially towards guys. I just wished he didn't transform into a female version of himself. Every time he did, I would get flashbacks of fanfiction of Naruto as a girl, and that just made me uneasy…

Sasuke had already gone and performed the jutsu and it was now Naruto's turn. I could hear Ino and Shikamaru complain about having to perform the quiz, but obviously Naruto didn't care about their laziness.

"Transform!"

Smoke poofed around his form and cleared to reveal a very naked, older female version of Naruto. Everyone except Sasuke and I were shocked to see this, but no one was as shocked as Iruka. He gaped at the girl's figure with bugged out eyes and his mouth hanging open. Then, by some unseen force, he was knocked back with his nose trailing blood in his path.

Transforming back, Naruto cackled and pointed at Iruka. "Gotcha! That's my Sexy Jutsu!" He could barely contain his amusement at his prank. While I could understand Naruto's amusement, I still had goosebumps go down my spine… fanfiction…

Iruka recovered quickly though. "Cut the stupid tricks! This is your last warning!"

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It wasn't until the next morning that I saw Naruto again. He was just coming down the stairs as I passed by his building to head to the Academy.

"Hey, Naruto!"

Turning to see me walking his way, his face brightened with the smile that I love which gives away how happy he. "Akina!"

"You ready to kick Graduation's butt?"

"I sure am, ya'know!"

When we finally got to the Academy, it wasn't long before it was time to start. Both him and Mizuki sensei would be officiating the Graduation exam, determining whether we would pass and go on to become Genin, or fail and try again next year.

"We will now start the final exam. When your name is called, proceed to the testing room. The final test will be on... the Clone Jutsu."

When I heard that, I groaned internally. I knew that this was Naruto's worst jutsu, but we couldn't figure out how to fix it. I personally thought that it was because Naruto had too much chakra, resulting in his poor chakra control, but I didn't know how to fix it for him.

 _This is not good._

Soon enough, I heard my name called by Mizuki. He led me to a room that was spacious with only a table inside with two chairs. One of those chairs was occupied by Iruka, and Mizuki sat down in the other chair.

"Whenever you are ready…"

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I felt so bad.

Naruto didn't pass.

But I did.

I didn't understand. Naruto was meant to pass with everyone else in the Rookie 9. It just wasn't the Rookie 9 without him!

I stood beside the tree outside of the Academy as Naruto swung on the lonely swing next to me. Everyone else was just outside of the Academy's doors with their families giving them praise while Iruka and the Hokage overlooked them all.

Whispers of insults and comments reached both of our ears, and just as I was about to console Naruto, a noise sounds off beside us. Wary of anyone that might hurt Naruto, I tense until I realize that it was Mizuki.

"Naruto, can I talk to you for a little bit?"

Knowing that Naruto needed some counseling, and with Mizuki willing to give it, I said bye to my best friend and began walking home. But I wasn't so eager to get home to my empty apartment, so I wandered around the village a little.

Before I knew it, it was getting dark out and I had decided to visit Ichiraku, hoping that Naruto would be there to meet up after this long day. He wasn't, but I still had Teuchi cook me up a bowl. It was when I was eating my bowl that I heard the chatter.

"He's not here either!"

"Find him, fast!"

"Where is that brat?"

 _Who were they looking for?_

I quickly paid for my meal and poked my head out to see what was going on. In the streets, there were various ninja who were looking in alleyways and crevices to look for their wanted kid. They took their frustration out on the dumpster they had just looked behind and went back to their search as they leaped back onto the rooftops.

 _It better not be Naruto…_

Just on the off chance that it might be him, I decided to go to our spot. It used to be an old outpost for messages to get to the village before it expanded. Now, it was abandoned and was in a remote part of the forests surrounding Konoha, which made it a great place for Naruto and I to train without anyone finding us.

Imagine my surprise when I found not only Naruto but Iruka as well in our spot. They were talking about a jutsu when I decided to make an appearance.

"Mizuki-sensei told me— Hey, Akina!"

Spinning around to face me, Iruka sighed a little at this predicament.

"Naruto, what did you do? The whole village is buzzing with ninja looking for you, and where did you get that scroll?!"

"Well—"

"LOOK OUT!"

Iruka pushed both Naruto and I away from him just before he was assaulted with kunai from an unknown enemy. Even as we both landed in a heap on the forest floor, I stretched my chakra awareness to sense who our foe was. My eyes widened when the chakra was familiar to me.

"I see you've found our little hide away."

Iruka winced as he looked up at the perpetrator. "So that's the way it is, huh? I should've known." In the trees was the man who had just attacked us: Mizuki.

Naruto and I shared shocked expressions between us. I knew that no matter what happened that I wouldn't let anyone hurt Naruto. Mizuki was aiming for Naruto, and would have hurt him if Iruka hadn't pushed us away. This made Mizuki Enemy #1 to me at this moment, so I prepared myself for a fight.

"Naruto! Give me the scroll, now!"

"But—"

I nearly growled before I replied quietly to Naruto so that only he could hear me. "We can't trust him, Naruto. He just tried to hurt us."

"Naruto! Don't let Mizuki get the scroll! It contains Forbidden Jutsu that could put this village in grave danger. Mizuki used you to get the scroll for himself, for his own power."

Both Naruto and I prepared for anything, and I got out a kunai, ready to protect my best friend at all costs. All that was running through my head was anger at this person for targeting Naruto and planning to hurt him. I could feel my anger rising to a dangerous level.

Mizuki held out his hand in a peace offering to Naruto as he spoke next. "Naruto, Iruka's just trying to scare you 'cause he doesn't want you to have the scroll."

"Don't listen, Naruto!" I pleaded with him. Iruka agreed with me to not listen to this liar.

The traitor laughed at everyone as he continued, "Oh I'll tell you who's really lying."

Iruka's expression became one of horror as he demanded that Mizuki stop. What was going on?

"They've been lying to you your whole life, Naruto," Mizuki seemed to look so pleased with himself for what he was about to reveal. "Since the decree 12 years ago."

"What decree?" _I'm with Naruto, what decree?_

"Everyone knows except you. Iruka's trying to hide it from you even now. He'd do anything to shut me up."

I was growing tired of this! Despite Iruka's protests, I "Stop bragging! What decree?!"

"The decree is: no one can tell you the Nine-Tailed Fox is inside you! The Fox spirit that killed Iruka's parents, Akina's mother, and destroyed our village has taken over your body. You are the Nine-Tailed Fox!"

 _What? How could he possibly know about Mom?_

I looked to Naruto to see that he was in shock. At the edge of my awareness, I could hear Iruka protesting against Mizuki, and I could feel something bubbling to the surface.

Something bad.

"They've all been sneaking around, hiding things from you your whole life. Didn't you think it was strange how they treated you? Like dirt. Like they hated you for just being alive!"

The bad feeling continued to bubble beneath the surface, and I realized that it was coming from Naruto. How could I have possibly forgotten that Naruto had the Nine Tails inside of him? This bit of information was key to everything that happens to him, of this I was now sure.

I watched as anger began to cloud Naruto's better judgment as he refused to believe the things that Mizuki told him. I was rooted to the spot I was standing on, I don't know what was making me falter. Why couldn't I move? Was it because I was surprised at the reminder that Naruto had the Kyuubi, at the reminder that I was forgetting everything, or…

And now, Mizuki was ready to turn the knife in our wound with his last remark. "That's why you'll never be accepted in this village. Even your beloved Sensei and **best friend** hate your guts!"

 **NOOO!**

It wasn't until a second later that I realized I had screamed this out loud. I was pissed beyond belief, I refused to let Mizuki have the last laugh! I refused to let him make Naruto believe that I hated him because it couldn't be further from the truth. He is my best friend, I could never hate him!

"Die, Naruto!"

"Naruto! Get down!"

Before I could blink, Mizuki had thrown an oversized shuriken at Naruto. At Iruka's shout, he put his head in his hands and braced for impact. My heart stopped beating for a moment as I thought I had just lost my best friend…

But then I realized Iruka had put himself between the shuriken and Naruto.

I saw red and I could feel myself change. My eyesight grew sharper, my sense of smell, hearing, all of it grew. Fangs were beginning to protrude from their normal length into small fangs, and a deep flame grew within my chest. I suppressed the flames as I charged at Mizuki while Naruto and Iruka had a heart-to-heart.

Surprised at my change, Mizuki dodged away from my initial charge and grabbed a kunai from his leg pouch. My speed was increasing as I grew even more enraged, to the point that I was suddenly behind Mizuki. I roundhouse kicked him in the back which caused him to collide with a tree. But once he did, there was a poof of smoke and a log appeared! Substitution!

Turning around, Mizuki smirked at me as he punched my face which knocked me down to the ground. I was winded at the impact, but I could vaguely hear Mizuki mocking Iruka about something he had just said. Whatever it was, Naruto seemed to remain unsure of everyone's loyalties, and ran away from our spot.

I quickly performed a few hand signs and fizzled out of the clearing as well. Once I had appeared in front of Naruto again, I was immediately drained of chakra. Naruto saw this and his first instinct had him catching me before I could fall to the forest floor, again.

 _I shouldn't have done that. I'm not ready for that jutsu._

This was my last thought before the edge of my vision began to grow darker. My eyes felt heavy and I could hear Naruto shout my name as I faded for a short time. However, I didn't succumb to the darkness this time.

 _Because, damn it! I refuse to be useless weight!_

"Naruto, you have to know… I don't… I could never…"

Naruto smiled slightly at me. "I know. I never believed anything Mizuki said about you because he doesn't know you, you're my best friend."

"And you're mine," I smiled back at him. We hugged and laughed lightly, relieved that we both knew that nothing, not even Mizuki, could tear us apart.

The sound of a crash caused us to look up at the disturbance. We quickly hid behind a wide tree away from the clearing. When we looked around the bark to see who was there, we discovered that it was Iruka and Mizuki. They were talking about Naruto and Mizuki couldn't shut up about how Naruto was a monster until…

"You're right."

 _No…_

"That is how beasts are. But that's not who Naruto is." Naruto was listening in with big eyes, I couldn't help but hope that Iruka was doing what I thought he was doing. "He's nothing like that. Naruto's one of a kind: works hard, puts his whole heart into it. Sure he messes up sometimes, and everyone jumps on him... But his suffering only makes him stronger. That's what separates him from being a beast."

I was smiling from ear to ear with tears at the corners of my eyes as Iruka continued. "So you're wrong. He's nothing like the Nine-Tailed Fox. He's Naruto Uzumaki of the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

I knew how much this would mean to Naruto. He always knew that I would never think any differently about him, I'm his friend. But to have someone who didn't grow up with him, someone who knew what happened with the Nine Tails. This would mean the world to Naruto.

So I let him go out there, as I watched from the background. I could see Naruto looking badass in front of Mizuki as he threatened him about harming Iruka. Mizuki had the dumb idea to egg Naruto on as he stood to protect his newest precious person from danger. With a cross shaped hand sign, I was amazed to see hundreds of clones of Naruto around and in the trees.

 _You little genius…_

It doesn't take a genius though to know that Naruto beat Mizuki to a bloody pulp, and he was definitely proud of it despite his modest words. At this point though, I left Naruto and Iruka to have their moment where they officially become friends. He needed this time to include a new person into his family, and I wasn't going to interfere with that.

When their moment was done, Naruto ran towards me with the same smile that I love to see on his face, and a Leaf headband adorning his forehead, signifying his place in the village forever more.

And I couldn't be happier.

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 **Author's Note**

I am sorry for the long delay in between chapters, but this last week has been chaotic to say the least. Just so you all are aware of it now, I do plan to update regularly every two weeks at least. If i get something else done earlier, then I'll go ahead and post it.

Also, since I might not post again until after the holidays, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know with a review!


	6. Meet Kakashi Hatake!

"Speaking"

 _Thoughts_

 ** _Thoughts in dreams_**

 **Chapter 5**

 _"You can do it, Akina!"_

 _I concentrated as hard as I could as I heard my brother and sister root for me. I wasn't going to give up until I got this down just right so I could prove everyone wrong about me._

 _Focusing my chakra, I gather it from my center to my feet and prepare for the signal._

 _Mother was standing there with a flag prepared to be our signal. I could see her smirk that she shared with someone behind us and I just knew that it was Father staring at us all with amusement in his expression. I didn't dare look his way though, I had to focus. Focus…_

 _"When you are all ready, we will begin!"_

 ** _I was so ready for this…_**

 _"On your mark…"_

 ** _Just focus…_**

 _"Get set…"_

 ** _And RUN!_**

 _"GO!"_

 _WAKE UUUPP!_

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What?

"Come on, Akina! GET UP!"

Bouncing on my bed was an annoying little nuisance who kept knocking the wind out of me every time he missed the bed and landed on me. Regardless of my ability to breathe, Naruto kept spring-boarding off of my bed in order to rouse me from my dreams. I can hardly explain how aggravating I can be when I wake up: it's a nightmare.

"Get OFF!"

Bursting from under my covers, I threw Naruto off of my bed and to the nearest wall, creating a Naruto-sized dent that I would have to fix later. After sliding to the floor with spasms of pain circulating through his body, Naruto turned around and tried to become a part of the wall itself as he looked on in terror at me. I could feel the tendrils of smoke and a sadistic atmosphere surround me as I unconsciously created a genjutsu to make me look sinister to Naruto. I have to admit that I would be afraid of myself if I was in Naruto's shoes, but he can deal with it.

In a sickly sweet voice, I called out to my friend, "Naruto… what was so important… that I had to be woken up… at this… UNGODLY HOUR!?" By the end of my question, I was definitely screeching at him.

Lesson of the day: Never, ever wake up Akina before she is ready to get up.

"I-i-i-it's t-t-team p-placements t-today… I-I t-t-thought that y-you would w-want… to get to the A-academy e-e-early…"

Deflating slightly, I sighed as I remembered that Naruto and I had agreed that we would go to our meeting for team placements early. We wanted to be early just to watch everyone's reactions at Naruto passing without anyone else knowing about it. We both thought it would be hilarious.

With this memory in mind, I held back my anger a little bit as I replied. "Fine! But you need to get out!"

As I said this, I had stomped over to Naruto's wall. When I got to him, I grasped him by the lapels of his jacket and proceeded to throw him out of my room to the wall on the far end of my "living room" area. That ought to scare him from waking me up again without asking me first. Wait… nevermind…

It was precisely ten minutes later that I finished taking a shower, blow drying my long hair, and stood in front of my closet to decide on what would become my new official ninja wear for my Genin career. I had picked a few things out yesterday, but now I faced the dilemma of my final decision. Taking a deep breath, I picked out a combination of the different ideas and threw them together.

When I was done wrapping and putting on what I needed, I showcased myself in front of my full mirror to see if it was okay. I must say though that I looked pretty badass (not to sound vain about myself).

My snowy locks now cascaded down to my lower back in its silky softness, and around my face were sideswept bangs which helped to frame my fair face. Centered in my face were two light cerulean jewels which sparkled in the light of my room. I realized with slight shock that I looked so much like my Mom, the only difference being my eyes.

I also had a slip-on shirt dress which was a light sky blue with dark azure accents down the front and at the edges of the material. There was a large slit on the right side of the dress which allowed maneuverability in the mid-thigh length clothing. Under this I had charcoal blue tights that came down to just under my knees with the standard ninja sandals on my feet. My Leaf headband was used as a belt with the symbol for my nation on my right hip. To complete my outfit, I had tight navy colored arm-warmers that extended to cover my hand without restricting my fingers and reached to just before the crease of my elbow.

This entire outfit looked very ninja-like to me, and it was perfect for blending into the shadows along with showcasing that my affinity was for water. I did think that one thing was missing though, so I went to my dresser and found just what I needed. Taking the bulk of my hair and leaving some long strands to frame my face, I put the rest of my hair in a high ponytail so that it wouldn't easily get caught on things. With that done, I was ready to go.

Flying down the stairs of my apartment building, I see Naruto impatiently waiting for me as he sports that pouty face he wears when things don't go his way. I giggle internally as a make myself known to my best friend with a quick greeting.

"Bout time, ya'know!"

"Keep your pants on, I'm here, so let's go," I smile and start to lead us to the ever-so-wonderful Academy.

As we continued to walk in companionable silence, my mind drifted to think about my friendship with Naruto. I was so happy at this moment, knowing that everything that has happened between us the past couple of days hasn't changed the way we see each other, no matter how crazy it is. I knew that I would never see Naruto as anything but Naruto Uzumaki, my best friend and the future Hokage. I was just glad that Naruto saw me the same way after the things that I told him. Most others would lock me up and sell me to the highest bidder or use me as bait to find my family. While I knew that Naruto wasn't like that, I still had that doubt in the back corner of my mind wondering if he would see me as a monster since I had been raised by what most people would deem to be monsters.

Little did I know that Naruto would blow that idea out of the water.

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 **Flashback…**

It was the next morning after the incident with Mizuki, and both Naruto and I were still reeling from the knowledge we had gained last night. Naruto finally knew the reason behind all of the hate-filled stares, mutterings about a monster, and the reason why people avoided him all together. And I finally remembered that Naruto had the Nine-Tailed Fox locked away inside of him, something that I should have already known from my previous life.

 **Knock, knock, knock…**

Knowing exactly who this would be, I hurried to the door and braced myself for the conversation to come. Twisting the knob, I opened the door to see my friend, Naruto.

He wasn't looking at me but at the ground instead as he fidgeted with his foot in the dirt outside of my apartment room. I wanted to just hug him tightly, he looked so nervous. Finally, he brought his head up, and looked to me with an anxious smile.

"So…"

I gave him my most encouraging smile. "Get your butt in here, doofus."

His smile brightened up as he came into my home, and I was glad that my little bit of sarcasm can bring a smile to his face. We both settled on my couch to talk about everything, everything that was bothering us, everything that we wanted to talk about, and everything we didn't.

I was still so indecisive about whether or not I wanted to tell Naruto about where I originally came from. Would he look at me differently, or say that I wasn't natural, or that I was a creep for knowing the things that I may or may not remember about him. I was so unsure about everything dealing with that topic.

"About last night," Naruto began, "how do you feel?"

 _Did Naruto Uzumaki just ask about someone's feelings?_

"If you're asking how I feel about your roommate, then I don't see a problem with it at all. He is just a prisoner inside of you, you are NOT him. You are Naruto Uzumaki, the best friend of Akina Morimoto."

"Why not 'Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage'?"

"You need to count your eggs before they hatch, buddy. You still have a long ways to go before you're Hokage material," I playfully joked with him. We did get distracted by our own silliness for a moment, but then it was back to the awkward silence that we had started this conversation with.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, ya'know."

I looked at Naruto, gob-smacked. _Was I rubbing off on him?_

Never mind the victory dance I was doing in my head, back to business.

"What if I told you something that changed the way you see me? A secret that I'm not supposed to share with anyone? Would you see me as anything other than your friend? Or I guess I should ask if you would still want to be my friend?"

I waited for his answers with baited breath, hoping for something good to come out of my own secret. Well, three secrets, but one at a time here.

"Of course I would still want to be your friend, ya'know! How could I not be your friend after everything you've done for me? You're the one person who saw me before anyone else, you're the person who acknowledged me when no one else would, you're the person who helps me with pranks, who laughs at my jokes, who stays by my side, and is the best friend I could have ever asked for. I would never see you any differently."

I could cry right now, I'm so happy. Something wet flows down my cheek, and it isn't until Naruto wipes it away that I realize that I really was crying. Naruto had moved me to tears with his little speech. I didn't think that Naruto would be this sensitive until the Shippuden era, but I was glad that in this moment, he was the friend that I needed.

"Thank you. So much…"

We both hugged it out, both starved for some companionship from everything that had happened in the last 24 hours alone. I knew that I could tell him at least one secret right now, and it would be enough for now.

Taking a deep breath, I started my tale. "I was born in the village, just like I told everyone. What I didn't say was that I was raised outside of the village by something that wasn't human."

"What was it?" Naruto wanted to know.

"They were dragons." I waited for a response, but all I received were Naruto's bug eyes, so I decided to continue. "They were the Summoning Creatures of my Mom, Tsubasa Morimoto, who was a kunoichi of Konoha. She died the night of the Kyuubi's attack, leaving me in the care of her summons should anything happen to her. I was left with Sora, who is the wife of the Dragon King, Ryuujin. Their two children, Ichigo and Nami, became my new brother and sister. I lived in the secret land of dragons known as Mount Ryuumoto."

On and on, I continued my tale. I told Naruto everything about my childhood. I told him about how I was raised as the daughter of a king, but I was never spoiled. Dragons had no use for expensive things, or treasures. I told him how I trained relentlessly with my two siblings to learn all I could about dragon transformations, healing, fire, and water. He brightened when I told him about how the Morimoto clan had once been prosperous during the Warring States Period. My clan had been so in sync with our dragon partners that we even were able to transform into dragons ourselves.

"Can you do that too? You did something with your face last night against Mizuki-sensei," Naruto recalled.

I scrunched my nose at him. "You don't need to call him sensei, he was trying to kill us, remember? And sort of. I'm just a beginner so the best that I can do right now is gaining some sensory skills of dragons and partially transform my face and hands, but that's it."

Continuing on with my story, I explained how I was given permission via messenger dragon (in human disguise) to become a ninja of Konoha when I reached Academy age. Before my guardians would let me leave though, I had to learn to perform the Summoning Jutsu. It was hard, I had to learn how to perfect my chakra control (which was necessary for healing too, so two birds, one stone), and then build up how much chakra I used at once with my large stores so that I could summon someone like Ichigo or Nami. I would work my way up to summoning someone like Sora and Ryuujin when I was older.

All in all, I told Naruto about my childhood and how I had gotten to where I was with him in this moment in time. I knew that I would need to eventually tell him the other secrets that I have: about this being my second chance and about the life I stole. I also knew that I wasn't ready to tell him this yet. It wasn't that I didn't trust him now, but I just couldn't handle how he might see me differently. I knew I would still be his friend now, but I didn't want him to change how he acted around me, and I especially didn't want him to pity me and my death.

But that would all have to wait another day.

"Who wants to go get some ramen with me?"

We both looked over to my window to see Iruka smiling at the two of us encouragingly, willing to buy dinner for the two of us before the big day tomorrow.

Naruto and I smiled identical smiles of joy and excitement as we both exclaimed, "I do!"

 **End Flashback**

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After I finished walking down memory lane, we had finally made it to the Academy where we would find out what the rest of our futures looked like based on who would be on our Genin teams. This was the one day I had been waiting for so anxiously. I was hoping that I had not messed with things so thoroughly that the teams who were meant to be together would be separated. But I also did want to change things for the better as well. My very existence was already changing things. As things changed, I kept remembering how things were meant to be without my interference. I remember that Naruto had no friends until Iruka came along. I remember that Naruto was hopeless in his studies, and I also remember that Naruto was always getting in trouble around the village as well without me there. I hoped to continue remembering things about this world that showed I had a positive impact. Not that I thought so highly of myself that I would have a huge impact on the world like Naruto will, but I wanted something good to come from my presence in this world.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? This isn't for dropouts, you can't be here unless you graduate," a voice drawled.

I turned from my spot by Naruto to see that Shikamaru had been strolling by when he took notice of the orange garbed knucklehead. I smirked as I listened to Naruto retort back about how he had graduated and just how good he looked with his new headband. From the corner of my eye, I could see Hinata looking my way, giving me an encouraging smile, knowing that my childhood friend had graduated. I smiled back as well, I was so happy that I would be equals with Naruto.

Suddenly though, there was a noise similar to a raging stampede. With a swipe of the sliding door, two girls barged into the room as they tried to push the other out of the way. This resulted in the two of them getting into the room at the same time. It wasn't until they stopped bickering about who was here first that I realized it was Ami and Ino, two of the biggest Sasuke fangirls I had ever seen.

When Ino felt that she was being watched, she glanced my way and then looked to see someone beside me. She barreled over to my row and knocked Naruto out of the way and stared longingly at the person behind me: Sasuke.

"Good morning, Sasuke. Mind if I sit next to you?" she winked at him for extra effect.

 _God, can't these girls think of something besides boys? And I'm not invisible, I'm already sitting in this seat!_

I completely ignored the ensuing argument that took place in the aisle beside my row and sighed to myself. "What idiots."

"No kidding."

I glanced at Sasuke and saw a miniature smirk coming from his face, one that you would only be able to spot if you knew him very well. To everyone else, my brother looked like he was doing his usual brooding. In response I gave him an eye smile back and chuckled softly at the expense of the fangirls.

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed someone in front of Sasuke. I just about face palmed myself when I saw that Naruto was squatting on the desk to get a good look at Sasuke, probably wondering what was so great about him to gain the attentions of so many girls in our class. I closed my eyes and felt a blush coming to my cheeks as the awkward silence continued and Naruto continued to glare at Sasuke.

 _This is embarrassing! Get down, Naruto!_

In the background, I took notice that the girls were all griping at Naruto to get away from their precious Sasuke. This only caused him to glance their way before his glare intensified at Sasuke and you could see sparks of war flying between the two newly appointed Genin.

This quickly changed when the boy behind Naruto stood up suddenly, bumping Naruto by mistake. "Sorry, did I bump you?"

 _Oh, my…_

 _Hold it in, hold it in, hold it in…_

 _Nope!_

 **BWAHAHAHA!**

I couldn't contain my boisterous laughter as I was practically rolling in my seat. Tears collected at the corners of my eyes as I continued laughing at the scene in front of me as Naruto and Sasuke darted away from the lip lock they had just been in due to the unlucky bump of an unsuspecting bystander. They were spitting out the after taste of their "makeout session" and clutching their throats and trying to contain their blushes from the embarrassment of it all (well Naruto was anyways).

Unaware of my surroundings due to my continued laughter, I now noticed that Naruto was getting beaten by the rabid fangirls. My anger spiked as I launched myself into action.

"GET OFF OF NARUTO, YOU HARPIES!"

It was a few minutes later now that everyone was finally settled in. Iruka was at the front of the classroom with a clipboard that would decide our fates in terms of who our teammates would be, and who our Jonin instructors would be.

"As of today, you are all ninjas. To get here, you've faced difficult trials and hardships, but that's nothing. What comes next will be far more difficult. Now you're only Genin, first level ninjas. All the Genin will be grouped into three man squads. Each squad will be led by a Jonin, an elite ninja."

With that being said, it seems many of the fangirls perked up at the possibility of being on Sasuke's team. I chose to ignore those wishy-washy girls in favor of paying attention to what Iruka was saying, but I was distracted by the looks on the faces of both Sasuke and Naruto. One had a face that looked like he ate a bad oyster, and the other looked like he was thinking of the worst person in the world. Sighing to myself, I bonked both boys on the head with a third of my strength. Didn't matter, because both boys looked at me with tears in their eyes and both were sporting identical bumps on their heads now.

Oh, yeah! Forgot to mention that thanks to the dragon blood running through my veins courtesy of the Morimoto clan, I have higher than normal strength when compared to a regular ninja; but I wasn't anowhere close to Tsunade's strength… **yet**!

"We want each squad to have a balance of strength and abilities, so that's how we set them up." Iruka raised the papers in front of his face as he now said, "I will now announce the squads."

He proceeded then to list off each of the squads. I internally cheered when Ami was so crestfallen that she was placed on a team with two boys who she disliked greatly, knowing that they would gang up on her now. Sucks to be you!

Now that Iruka had finished announcing Team 6's lineup, it was the moment of truth.

"Squad 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha…"

I giggled when Naruto looked down in disappointment at getting Sasuke on his team. I could even hear him mutter, "I'm doomed…"

"And Akina Morimoto!"

At this, both Naruto and I did a victory pose as we both stood up. We would be on the same squad together! As Iruka continued to read out the rest of the squads, I could see a smirk coming from Sasuke now that he knew that I was on the same team as him.

 _Ha! He's just glad his teammate isn't a fangirl!_

"Iruka-sensei! Why does a great ninja like me have to be in the same group with a slug like Sasuke?!"

 _Oh, geez._

Iruka gave a "hmm" as he looked at Naruto with a disapproving glare. "Sasuke had the best scores of all the graduating students. Naruto, you had one of the worst scores."

 _Well, at least he wasn't_ _ **THE**_ _worst._

Students laughed at this, which grated on my nerves a bit. Too many people loved to poke fun at Naruto. "To create a balanced group, we put one the best students with one of the worst students."

Naruto didn't like this idea one bit, and made it known through a growl before he heard another comment coming from his left. "Just make sure you don't get in my way, loser."

Before this could escalate, I quickly gave them a second helping of my punches on their heads. Now they had two matching bumps on their heads. "Cut it out! We're going to be a team from now on, so I don't want to hear any complaints about it. Got it?!"

 _Oh, boy. I feel like the teenage mother to these two bozos…_

"I got it, ya'know…"

"Whatever…"

"After lunch, you'll meet your new Jonin teachers. Until then, class dismissed."

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"He's late!"

We had been waiting now for over two hours after lunch was over, and still no Jonin teacher for Team 7 yet… This was boring as hell!

"How come our new teacher's the only one that's late? I'm ready to roll, ya'know! The other groups already met their new teachers and took off on some adventure, or something. And Iruka-sensei's gone too!"

"Yeah, I know that. I'm standing here waiting too." I really didn't like waiting for hours on end for someone to arrive. If this becomes routine, I just might scream.

But right then, I had payback on my mind for our teacher's tardiness.

"Hey, I've got an idea," I exclaimed to Naruto. Looking into each other's eyes for a brief moment, we both smirked and got to work. I grabbed a stool and Naruto grabbed the chalk eraser from the board. Together, we placed the eraser in between the door and the wall so that when our instructor opened the door, he would get a face full of chalk dust.

A scoff came from behind us. "Our teacher's a Jonin, an elite ninja. You think he'd fall for that?"

"Oh, come on, Sasuke. Live a little, and enjoy the moment."

Just as I finished saying this, a hand appeared at the door. This was it! The hand slid the door ever so slightly before the eraser was dropping from its hiding spot at the top. It then bounced on the Jonin's head, resulting in a puff of chalky smoke and a stain appearing on top of his silvery head. The room was quiet for a moment, and then…

"Hahahahaha! We got him! He totally fell for it!" Naruto continued to laugh at the expense of our new teacher. Sasuke looked on at the situation unbelieving of what just happened, and I was trying to contain my laughter at how ridiculous our new sensei looked for falling for such a simple prank.

As the guy picked up the lonely eraser off of the floor, we all quieted down to see what he would say in retaliation to our joke.

"Hmmm. How can I put this?" our new teacher drawled lazily. "My first impression of this group… You're a bunch of idiots."

We all deflated at hearing this from the person who would help shape our future as ninja in Konoha. This wasn't looking good.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes," our teacher demanded as he then poofed out of existence.

I grabbed a hold of both Naruto and Sasuke before I flared my chakra and then we flashed out of there until we were on the roof. We looked around and saw our new teacher across the way at the other end of the roof.

As we walked over to him, I started to carefully gauge what kind of a ninja our new sensei was. Gravity defying hair leaned heavily to the left side of his head, making him appear to be lopsided. It didn't help that he wore his headband in a strange way, at a slant so that it covered the left side of his face. He was wearing the typical Jonin uniform of a navy jumpsuit and the green flak jacket. What wasn't standard about him was that he also wore a mask over the bottom half of his face. That combined with his headband only gave us a small portion of his face that we could actually see (which would only be his right eye).

All around, he was a lazy looking guy, no matter how I looked at him. He was even slouching on the railing as he continued reading an orange book as he waited for us to come over to him.

By the time we had settled down by the steps near the railing, our new teacher put away his book and began to tell us what to do. "Alright, why don't you introduce yourselves one at a time?"

I was really getting tired of his lazy attitude. "I'm supposing that would include names, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future right? But why don't you introduce yourself first, sensei?"

"Who, me?"

 _Well, duh! You're the only sensei here._

"I'm Kakashi Hatake. Things I like and things I hate… I don't feel like telling you that."

I was really starting to get annoyed. But also as we waited for him to continue, I began getting flashes of memories involving him. Bells, tragedy, protective instincts, camaraderie with him, and lightning. Those were things I began to associate with him. I think I was more surprised these flashes didn't involve tardiness, annoyance with his attitude, among other things like not giving us enough information.

"My dreams for the future… never really thought about it… As for my hobbies… I have lots of hobbies."

 _So all we learned was your name… Great!_

I hadn't realized that I said this out loud until I heard a tone of agreement from Naruto which made my cheeks burn in embarrassment.

"Okay, your turn. You on the right, you first," he indicated to Naruto.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, ya'know! I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle shop. Oh! I also like my friend Akina, she's the greatest. But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them with Akina. And my future dream is… To be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody, somebody important!"

I had to smile at his long-winded introduction. While ramen was super important to him, I was glad he thought to put me in there as well. I was also happy over how he has grown in his dream, but I knew he had a ways to go before reaching it. But I was determined to help him get all the way to the top.

"Alright, next."

Taking this as my cue to go ahead, I introduced myself. Even if it was unnecessary since Naruto and Sasuke both knew me, and I am sure that Kakashi went through my file as well.

"I'm Akina Morimoto. I like learning about medical ninjutsu, reading, and being around these two knuckleheads. What I don't like are fangirls, mornings, and these two when they bicker about nothing. My hobbies are spending time with friends, learning about new healing techniques, and swimming. My dream for the future is to be the greatest kunoichi I can be so that I can protect my precious people."

Satisfied with my introduction, I watched as the others' thoughts became easy to read on their faces. Naruto was looking at me like as if I was the coolest person in the world, Sasuke looked smug about something (probably the "mornings" thing, he loves to wake me up in imaginative ways), and Kakashi… Well it was difficult to tell with him, but I think he was just happy that I wasn't obsessed with boys like most girls my age.

"Last one."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, especially fangirls, but I do like to train with my sister, tomatoes, and taking walks. What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, protect my sister for as long as I live, and bring a certain someone to justice."

As Sasuke was introducing himself, I could see something. It was like there was an afterimage of him as he talked, but the other one was saying something darker. He was not the Sasuke I had grown up with, he wasn't my brother. I looked to Kakashi, and he also looked surprised that Sasuke wasn't laser-focused on revenge as well. Naruto just looked wary of Sasuke, but he didn't look as creeped out as I think he would have been if he heard what the "other" Sasuke was saying.

"Good," Kakashi gathered our attention again. "You're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto perked up at the idea of a mission. "What kind of mission are we going to have?"

"It's a task that the four of us will do together."

"What, what, what, whaaat?" I rolled my eyes good-naturedly at Naruto's antics.

"A survival exercise."

Everyone else looked confused, and Naruto voiced as much, but I was growing suspicious of what Kakashi was up to. It did seem too easy to me that all of the students from our class were able to pass. I don't see a lot of Genin teams around Konoha, so there can't be that many that pass every year, right? So there's something else.

Naruto must have said something while I was having my mental debate because Kakashi was responding. "This is not like your previous training."

"So what kind of training is it then?"

A low rumbling chuckle resounded on the rooftop as Kakashi seemed to find something funny about this situation. I narrowed my eyes at him, as did Sasuke. "That's a normal question, so what's with the laughter?"

"Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it," Kakashi practically sang to us in his cheerful attitude. Why is it that when I want him to not have a lazy attitude, and he replaces it with a cheery one, it still manages to annoy me a little.

"Of the 27 graduates who just came here only 9 will actually be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass fail test, and the chance that you will fail is at least 66 percent."

 _W-what?!_

"See? Didn't I tell you 'you wouldn't like it'?"

"That's crazy, ya'know!" I would definitely agree with Naruto. "What was that graduation test for anyway?!"

Kakashi was getting too much joy out of our misery. "Oh, that! That was just to select candidates who might become Genin… or not."

"What?!" both Naruto and I were astonished at how this Genin thing was turning out. I had suspected, but that doesn't mean that I was okay with being right about it.

"That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 AM, and bring your ninja gear."

 _Oh, don't worry about that! I really want to poke you with a few kunai right now with your smug attitude you have._

I could tell the boys were psyching themselves up as well, both were so focused on their own thoughts that they didn't even concern themselves with me or Kakashi as he got up to leave.

"That's it, you're dismissed." Suddenly, Kakashi turned around as he remembered something. "Oh! Tomorrow you better skip breakfast or else… you'll puke."

 _Ninjas are crazy!_

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 **Author's Note**

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! I'm hoping you enjoyed this chapter since you get a peek at Akina's childhood. Thanks again to all of the people who left reviews and favorited/followed me or my story. I really appreciate it, and you all just motivate me to write more.

With that in mind, please favorite/follow if you are not already, and please leave a review to let me know what you think of this latest chapter.

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year in the next couple of days. Here we come 2017!


	7. There's No I in Team 7

**Chapter 6**

 _I hate this, I hate this so much._

I'm practically marinating in my own frustration from waking up this early. Sasuke had even shown up at my house to wake me up. He didn't stay for long though, not since Sasuke woke me up with a bucket of ice water to the face, but I'll get back at him later. I was yawning like crazy as I made my way to the third training ground, where we had been designated to meet.

Naruto and Sasuke were both there since I was a few minutes late. Sue me! Kakashi wasn't even here yet either.

By the time the sun had finally risen, I was awake and annoyed with our sensei for being late AGAIN! Naruto was beside me, nodding off every once in a while. I would also nudge him so he could wake up if he was going too far into sleep.

It wasn't until just after 11 in the morning that Kakashi finally deemed it time to show up to HIS meeting!

"Morning, everyone. Ready for your first day?"

 _GRRR!_

"Hey! You're late!" Naruto and I both yelled at our new sensei.

Smiling his cheeky eye-smile, he calmly told us his excuse. "Well, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way."

Naruto was practically growling like an angered creature, but I decided on using my ever-so-wonderful sarcasm. "A Chunin rank ninja can make it to Sunagakure in three days time and you couldn't manage to make it around the village in 6 hours? Some ninja…"

I could tell Kakashi wasn't fazed by either of our comments as he got out some contraption and set it on a log. He pushed down on the large button on top of what I could now see was a clock.

"It's set for noon."

Then when he reached into his pocket, I could hear a jingling sound. Kakashi brought them out to reveal two small bells with string attached at the top. _Okay… what is this?_

"Your assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it."

Sounds simple enough.

"If you can't get them by noon, you go without lunch."

WHA?!

"You'll be tied to those posts and you'll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

 _No good sensei! He told us not to have breakfast so that this would be harder… Sadist!_

I put aside my frustration so that I could fully understand the test. "Since there are two bells, I'm assuming at least one person will be tied up at the end of this?"

Eye-smiling again at his masochistic ways, Kakashi replied, "That's right! This way at least one of you will end up being tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing to complete the mission. That one goes back to the Academy."

The boys tensed up, realizing how severe the consequences of failing would be for any of them. I looked to see determined expressions on each of their faces. I just hoped that we could work together on this.

"Then again, all three of you could flunk out too…"

I was determined that we would all pass this ridiculous test. I refuse to hold back Naruto or Sasuke in their lives. I remembered that this was the time for them to become Genin, I just can't remember how. All I knew was that with Sakura here, they passed. I was going to make sure that this happened again with me here.

"You can use any weapons, including shuriken." Kakashi gave us each a serious look as he continued. "If you're not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells."

 _Ha! And we have a shot at some payback!_

Naruto was laughing beside me though. "Are you sure? I mean, you couldn't even dodge that eraser."

"Class clowns are usually the weakest links, you can safely ignore them, lowest scores, losers…"

I couldn't help it when I growled along with Naruto at our sensei. How dare he say something like that to Naruto!

I barely heard what Kakashi was saying after this though, my blood was boiling over with his masochistic ways and his insults to my friends. I didn't have much time to think of what I was going to do since I saw movement from my periphery vision. Naruto was charging at Kakashi with a kunai drawn.

With barely a moment passing, I felt Kakashi's chakra move from his previous location to just behind Naruto. Flashing over, I drew my own kunai and held it at Kakashi's back. The end result of this encounter was that Kakashi had Naruto's arm in a hold so that his kunai was facing the back of his head, and I was pressuring him from behind so that he wouldn't harm Naruto.

"Don't be in such a hurry. I didn't say 'start' yet."

After Kakashi let Naruto go, I removed my kunai from his back and went over towards Naruto's side, Sasuke quickly following. I could tell that Sasuke was taking this guy seriously as a Jonin now at his display of speed. I also could hardly believe it too. If it weren't for my Flash and Chakra sensing abilities, I would never have made it in time to protect Naruto.

"But… You came at me with the full intention of destroying me or protecting your comrade, so…" Kakashi chuckled slightly at his amusement of us. I have to admit, I smirked a little too.

"How can I say this? I'm actually starting to like you guys."

My smirk only grew at this slight compliment. I believe that I'm beginning to see just what kind of person Kakashi is. Who knew that this guy could grow on me too… but he's still annoying with his tardiness!

"Get ready. AAAAAnd… START!"

As soon as we were given the signal, all of us vanished. I quickly flashed to a secure location in the far distance, using my enhanced eyesight to keep track of Kakashi.

"Ninja must know how to conceal their movements and hide effectively!"

We know that already. Sighing to myself, I began planning on how to signal the boys to me so that we could come up with some sort of plan. First, I focused by closing my eyes, reaching in the distance with my chakra senses. I found Sasuke in a tree relatively close to the clearing. He was about halfway between my own location and Kakashi's. This could be good, if I were to signal him, Kakashi might not see it through the dense forest.

With this in mind, I focused on finding Naruto. Once I found him though, I almost face palmed myself. _You knucklehead…_

"You and me, right now, fair and square! Let's go!"

This time I really did face palm myself. Luckily, Kakashi didn't hear me smack my head, but this was ridiculous! I know I had helped calm Naruto's need to prove himself in front of me, so what was he trying to prove? This just made things that much harder.

"You know, compared to the others… you're a little bit… weird."

Naruto was not impressed. "Oh, yeah? Well, the only weird thing here is your haircut."

And with that, Naruto charged with a battle cry. Sighing to myself, I used his distraction as an opportunity to flash over to Sasuke. He was surprised to see me, but he relaxed when he noticed it was me and not Kakashi. We both nodded to each other and returned to watching Naruto try his hand at taking on Kakashi.

Naruto had at this time stopped his charge and looked at our sensei with caution as he reached for something in his pouch. "Shinobi Battle Techniques, part 1: Taijutsu, the physical part."

 _So, what was he reaching for in his pouch then? Watch out, Naruto…_

When his hand finally emerged from his ninja pouch, he had in his hands… a book. What's worse is that this wasn't any ordinary book. I remembered now what Kakashi's vice was: his lecherous porn book. I had to control myself again from face palming myself (again), but I could feel the sweat drop happening. I could see Sasuke looking at me with a confused look at the reveal of the orange book. Without my enhanced eyesight, no one would be able to read the title of the book at this distance. At least, no one of Genin level could anyways. Doesn't mean I think I'm better than a Genin, I just have great genetics in terms of my senses.

"I'M GOING TO CRUSH YOU!"

Naruto's voice brought me back to the present. We needed to come up with a plan to get Naruto out of his situation with Kakashi so that we could come up with an effective strategy to grab the bells.

"Sasuke, we need to grab Naruto," I whispered to him.

Giving me an incredulous look, I could tell what he thought of this.

"Now you're mine!"

 _What?!_

Kakashi had disappeared from Naruto's line of sight to behind him. He was forming the seal of the tiger, which is usually used to form a fire jutsu.

Forgetting that I should be figuring out a plan, I flashed away from Sasuke and came at Kakashi from another direction so that I wouldn't give away Sasuke's position. Kunai ready in my hand, I charged for Kakashi at an angle.

"Too late," Kakashi practically sang as I tried to reach Naruto in time. I had to conserve my chakra with all of the flashes that I had done already, but damn it!

Naruto turned to see Kakashi bring his hands up towards him.

"Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu!" _Hunh?!_

 _…_

 _What the hell…?_

"A Thousand Years of Death!"

Naruto was catapulted up and away from an unsavory poke in the butt by our sensei, which had to hurt considering the chakra that was put into his hands…

 _These two… are a whole new kind of crazy…_

However, Naruto ended up in the stream next to us, so I followed after him. Kakashi was too preoccupied with his book to really be concerned with us. Once I was in the water, I quickly grabbed Naruto, who struggled at first, but then relaxed when he noticed that it was me. He did, however, look at me with a determined look in his eyes. He wanted to do more, to try to prove himself to Kakashi at least.

I knew that there would be no talking him out of this, even if we weren't underwater right now. So I let him go, and swam to the shore just beyond the edge of the forest so that I could resume watching Naruto have his fight with Kakashi. When I was hidden enough again, I glanced back to see Naruto had made some clones so that there were now seven Narutos running towards Kakashi. I didn't really think that a direct assault would work though. Naruto had to have something else in mind.

Smiling to myself, I was proven right when I saw another Naruto grab Kakashi from behind, giving the clones plenty of time to anchor down our sensei for the Naruto who leapt in the air to come in for the kill.

"Now this is for nailing me in the butt earlier!"

 _Naruto, you clever knucklehead! You never cease to amaze me._

My best friend goes in for the final blow, only to discover… himself…

Naruto was holding onto another clone. This means that Kakashi must have used some sort of substitution on a clone instead of the standard block of wood. I waited for Naruto to figure it out, but it was no good. He ended up fighting himself.

 _Come on, Naruto! Don't make it easier for Kakashi…_

Sighing to myself, I waited for Naruto to inevitably dispel the jutsu and realize that Kakashi wasn't even there. When the smoke finally dissipated, Naruto was left there alone, looking like he had gotten into a fight that he lost badly.

I knew that I should probably be helping Naruto right now. I should have used the smoke from when he deactivated his jutsu as cover to escape. But I just knew that Naruto wouldn't appreciate it at all. He still feels that he needs to prove himself. I want him to feel secure in his self-esteem with my help, but I need him to see that doing things by himself will harm him more than asking for help ever will. This is why I'm hesitant to help him at this very moment.

On the flip side, Sasuke is the same. He wants to prove that he is strong, strong enough to protect and strong enough to beat an adversary like Kakashi. This means that he will be one step closer to facing him. But he's too impatient, and he doesn't realize that I want to be right there beside him to help him achieve his goals, just like I do with Naruto.

So I'll let both of them try their hands at single combat with Kakashi, and then I will be there to help them and be willing to use teamwork to succeed.

My mind was brought back though when I saw Naruto get strung up into the air by his ankles after having tried to reach for a bell decoy. Then in comes Kakashi, looking smug as he gives Naruto a lecture about going for the obvious bait. I realize though that while he is trying to make Naruto angry with him to cloud his judgment, he is also giving helpful hints that could save him in the future.

I was suddenly aware of Sasuke's chakra when it flared with determination, and I then noticed several kunai and shuriken sailing through the air towards the unsuspecting Jonin.

"Are you out of your mind, Sasuke?!"

I would have to agree with Naruto as I watched Kakashi's body fall to the ground, but then it changed. With a puff of smoke, I saw a large log in the place of where our sensei had once been with the kunai and shuriken imbedded in its bark.

Sasuke will have to move quickly to get to a new location that favored him. With that stunt that he just pulled, Kakashi will figure out where he was hiding. Meanwhile, I waited for the two of them to get a safe distance away before I went over to Naruto. It looked like he had tried to get out from the ropes around his ankles once and then landed himself in yet another trap. I had to restrain myself from chuckling as I approached him.

"How's it hanging, Naruto?"

I could see the pout on his face as he regarded me with a stubborn attitude. "I'll get out of this and then tell you all about it…"

I sighed for the umpteenth time today and tried again. "Naruto, we need to work together. There is no shame in accepting help from a friend. Do you ever feel like you need to prove yourself when I help you pull pranks?"

"Well, no—"

"And what about all the times that we would talk about you becoming Hokage? All of the Hokage have the help of their ANBU, Jonin, and other ninjas to help keep the peace throughout the village and land. Is it bad for him to ask for help?"

Grumbling, Naruto answered, "No…"

I smiled, knowing that I had won the argument. _This loveable knucklehead…_

"How about we go see Sasuke get his butt kicked before we pick him up?"

Naruto gave me his mischievous grin, agreeing wholeheartedly with the idea I had presented him with. So I quickly threw a kunai to free him from the ropes, and we both headed to where I detected both Kakashi and Sasuke's chakras.

We both hid in the trees not too far away from where the fight was taking place. I wasn't worried about Naruto making any noise as we hid considering both of us had learned to evade and hide from Chunin for most of our Academy days. Now, I was focusing in on the fight between Sasuke and our sensei.

"Well, you are different from the other two, I'll grant you that."

 _Sasuke was talking a big game again, wasn't he? He needs a good smack to the head for being so arrogant!_

With a scoff, Sasuke began weaving hand signs for a jutsu, and this was one that I recognized. It seems that Kakashi did as well.

"What?!" Kakashi was surprised by Sasuke's performance. "Genin can't do Fire Jutsu, takes too much chakra! There's no way!"

Using the chakra from his gut, Sasuke launched a massive fireball out of his mouth towards Kakashi. He continued to stream this inferno at the spot our sensei had been standing in for a few moments and then ceased his assault. When the smoke began to clear, Sasuke noticed that no one was there, which meant that he missed and he had no idea where Kakashi was right now.

I had to smirk to myself, and I could see Naruto doing the same at the sight of Sasuke being flustered. I knew exactly where Kakashi was right now, and when a hand reached out to grab Sasuke's ankle from the earth, my thoughts were confirmed. After a comment from Kakashi, he began to drag Sasuke into the earth and continue to trap him in the hard soil.

"Right under your feet. Earth Style: Head Hunter Jutsu," Kakashi explained.

Sasuke tried to struggle out of his predicament, and I looked to see Naruto trying to contain his laughter at Sasuke losing for once to someone besides me (we were usually back and forth with our fights).

"Can't move, hunh? That was Ninjutsu, the third shinobi battle skill," Kakashi eye-smiled at Sasuke's attempts at struggling. "You have talent, and you were right. You are different from the others, but different isn't always better."

Turning away, Kakashi grabbed his book once again from his ninja pouch and proceeded to walk away. "They say that the nail sticks up is the one that gets hammered down." With that final piece of advice, Kakashi went away to probably try to find me since I was the only one to not fight him head on yet.

Once I was sure that Kakashi was far enough away to be out of range, I gave Naruto a signal and we pounced from our perch and landed in front of Sasuke's head. As all of us stared at each other, the sight of only Sasuke's head was getting to be too much for Naruto. So he let out an exuberant laugh as he pointed at Sasuke with tears in his eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei got you good! HAHAHAHA!"

"Dobe, just wait until I get out of here…"

With that thought, I grabbed both Naruto and Sasuke and flashed us to a location even further away from Kakashi. I didn't want him to disturb us, but when we got there I tried to catch my breath as I put my hands on my knees. Those two jerks were heavy!

"Akina," Sasuke exclaimed. "How do you keep doing that?"

"I want to know too, ya'know?!"

I had to smile at the two of them. They finally agree on something.

"The Morimoto clan just calls it the Flash Step. It is a technique that can only be achieved after mastering a manipulation jutsu of your first element, which in my case would be water. I can basically transport myself to any water that I find. This could include bodies of water, water vapor in the air, water in the soil, and even the water in the human body. The Second Hokage's Hiraishin technique was created to mimic the effects our skill has without the need to be limited to our chakra nature by using seals instead. The Fourth Hokage then had the idea to place the seals on kunai and make it an easy way to transport from one place to the other. The dragons naturally have this gift, and passed it on to the Morimoto clan, which means I have had the potential to use this gift since birth. Any questions?"

I think I stunned them. They were both looking at me with bug-eyed expressions, and Naruto's jaw was practically hanging to the floor.

"So that's it? That's the whole secret?" Sasuke looked slightly disappointed in me. He has been trying to figure it out since the day I had met him. It was honestly funny seeing him try to come up with a guess on how I could flash from one place to the other.

Smirking, I replied. "Yeah, the famous secret you have been dying to know is that simple. I do need to say though that I am not perfect at it. It takes a lot of chakra right now since I have not completely mastered my element. With more training, it will become second nature to flash from one location to another. I can only flash from places that I can see or know so well that I can imagine them in my mind's eye. Even then, I can flash no farther than a few hundred yards away."

Sasuke was suspicious though. "So how did you get us here then? We're nowhere in sight of where we just were."

"I scoped out this place last night, which is why it was so hard for me to wake up this morning…"

"Akina! You're awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke even seemed to concede on this point after my confession on how I planned ahead and on my "mad skills".

My heart was elated that both boys thought I was cool, even if for just a moment. But I knew that we needed to get down to business. "So how about we work together?"

Both boys looked at me like I was crazy, which is a drastic change from their admiring and respectful looks that I was getting before I suggested using teamwork. They both then started telling me reasons that they should not work together. Among them were insults, complements about themselves, among other things. Honestly, these two were so similar to each other, it was almost laughable. Their arguing was getting on my nerves though.

So I bonked them both on the head.

"OW!"

"Hn!"

"I'm tired of you both arguing! We have to be reasonable. Kakashi is a Jonin, we are Genin. There is no way to beat him in a one-on-one matchup. We have to work together to get those bells."

Naruto pouted to me, telling me he really didn't want to do this. "Do we have to?"

My stern look must have been answer enough for him.

"Hn, you have a plan."

It wasn't a question, but I went ahead and answered anyway.

"As a matter of fact, I do," I smirked devilishly.

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At this point, there were a couple of minutes left on the clock. So, I made sure that the three of us were in position before we executed our plan. Getting a signal from each of my teammates, I signaled for them to move in. Kakashi was in the center of the field that we had originally started in, and I wanted to make sure that we used all of this space to its fullest.

All three of us charged Kakashi from one side of the forest, ready for anything.

"Here we come, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried out with a roar.

Naruto created a cross shape with his hands and created three clones, making them all go in multiple directions from their starting point. Sasuke and I were making wide sweeps from our positions beside Naruto so that we could all surround him. Out of the three of us, Sasuke and I were the fastest and having Naruto in the center gave Kakashi a distraction until we could get in place.

Once we were both there, I saw that Kakashi had engaged Naruto's clones in taijutsu combat, making the three of them poof out of existence in a hurry. Just before the last one disappeared, Sasuke and I each launched our own jutsus.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

"Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!"

Despite the name of my own jutsu, I used the torrent version of the technique which allowed me to create a stream of high pressured water coming from my mouth and aim it at Kakashi. Sasuke's attack was coming at him as well from the other side so that there was a three way attack coming at Kakashi from Naruto, Sasuke, and I. He had nowhere to go, and I doubt he didn't read my file, so he knows that I can track him under the ground if he escapes that way. He does evade though, but as soon as he does, he is caught inside of the mist that the collision of Fire and Water creates.

Taking this chance, I use a quick Substitution to replace myself with Naruto's clone that was waiting in the trees still for his signal. When I switched with him, I knew that he would immediately transform into my likeness so that Kakashi would be none the wiser.

Once that was done, I knew that the next part would be the most challenging for me. I had instructed Sasuke to bring with him a vial of water to make it easier, and it did. Sensing the water inside of Sasuke's pouch, I hurriedly transformed into a kunai and nestled myself into his pouch just enough that I wouldn't fly out, but stuck out enough that Sasuke would know which kunai I was. From inside the pouch, I could feel Sasuke and Naruto giving Kakashi a hard time with their taijutsu, and it was barely a moment more when I felt Sasuke leap back and reach into his pouch for multiple kunai, with me included.

Throwing the weapons with all of his might towards Kakashi, he aimed some up high and others down low with me aimed at Kakashi's midsection. He was so distracted with Naruto and his clone of me that he didn't have time to do anything but dodge the kunai.

Then…

 **POOF!**

I became myself again as I sailed by Kakashi's waist, reaching my hand out for the bells at his hips. I was just about to grab them when…

 **BRRIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNGGG!**

 _Damn! So close!_

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The three of us were now sitting in front of the three posts with the lunch boxes in front of us. Naruto was tied to the post though. Kakashi told us that since Naruto did the worst out of the three of us, he would be the one tied to the post.

At this time, all of our stomachs decided to growl at the same time. The resounding growl resulted in a pathetic picture of us as we looked down in defeat at not getting the bells and at not having any lunch.

"Uh, oh. Stomachs growling, hunh? That's too bad," Kakashi didn't really sound like he was sorry at all. "Oh! By the way, about this exercise… Well, I've decided. I won't send any of you back to the Academy."

Naruto was hopeful that this was good news, and seemed like he could hardly believe his ears. Sasuke was basking in the glory of passing the first hurdle to get stronger, he was smirking with victory. I, on the other hand, was a little more suspicious of our new sensei's antics. I had a feeling he was up to something.

"Then, then that means all three of us, I mean all three of us—"

Kakashi eye-smiled, but it really didn't seem like the other times he had done this, something was wrong.

"Yes," he replied. "All three of you… are being dropped from the program… **PERMENANTLY**!"

It was like a train just ran over all of our moods. Naruto stopped cheering, Sasuke scowled, and my eyes got bigger in disbelief. I didn't think we did that bad! There was no way that he had that kind of authority… right?

Naruto vehemently protested. "Drop us from the program?! That means we can never become ninja! You said if we couldn't take the bells we'd be sent back to the Academy! You can't just change your mind and kick us out! Why would you do that?!"

"Because you don't think like ninja," he continued. "You think like little kids. Like brats!"

Sasuke seemed to not like the comment that Kakashi just made, or maybe he just didn't like that he was potentially going to be dropped from being a ninja and getting stronger. Either way, he charged at Kakashi. I was too drained on my chakra to flash over to him, so by the time I had gotten up to try to help, Kakashi had already pinned Sasuke to the ground.

"You think it's all about you."

"Let him go!" I protested.

"You don't know what it means to be a ninja!" Kakashi looked my way now. "You think it's a game, hunh?"

I practically growled at him. Naruto had a look in his eyes like it might be true that he didn't take being a ninja as seriously as he probably should. Kakashi didn't seem fazed by any of our reactions though as he continued his rant.

"Why do you think we put you on squads? Did you consider that question for one moment?"

Naruto looked lost. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you never realized what this exercise was all about!" Then he seemed to want to recant his statement. "Well, maybe one of you understood."

"What it's about?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, it's what determines whether you pass or fail."

I considered it for a moment now. We were put on squads with a Jonin instructor, we had a test with staggering odds that he told us about from the beginning, and there were only two bells that we had to get away from a Jonin… Wait… was it that simple?

Kakashi saw my look of realization after Naruto's outburst. The conversation must have continued on while I was thinking, but Kakashi gave me a look of understanding.

"Akina! Tell them what it is."

I was shocked that he would take a rain check from gloating at us and proving that we didn't have all of the answers. But him calling for me to answer just confirmed my belief that the answer to this test was truly that simple.

"It's teamwork."

After I said this, both Naruto and Sasuke had looks of disbelief at how simple the concept was. I also think that they may have been realizing that they really had no concept for it, and it wasn't until I practically threatened them that they would cooperate.

"If all three of you had come at me from the beginning instead of wasting time, you might have might have been able to take the bells."

Kakashi's words were sinking in a bit. If I had just pulled the two boys to work together from the start, we would have had more time to plan and have a backup plan if needed. We would have gotten the bells.

"So why were there only two bells then?" Naruto commented.

"I purposely pitted you against each other. I wanted to see if you could overcome that and put the squad ahead of yourselves. A Genin should have a natural feel for teamwork. But for some of you, it never even crossed your mind."

 _I'm really not liking this lecture…_

"Akina!"

 _What?!_

"You naturally understood the meaning of the test, but you failed to rally together your teammates until it was too late. Instead of worrying about their feelings, you should have stepped up and made the hard call."

 _I guess that would be an accurate statement._

"Naruto! You do everything on your own. Everything but your useless pranks!"

Beside me, Naruto looked down in shame. I wanted to protest that he didn't do everything alone, but I couldn't. Naruto did let me pull some pranks with him. Everything else, he wanted to prove to everyone that he could do things on his own, with his own strength.

"And you, Sasuke. You thought that at least one of your teammates was so far beneath you that they were worthless, while the other was so helpless that they needed your protection in everything they do. Arrogance!"

I couldn't help but think that Sasuke was trying to get one of the bells for me which would be why Kakashi made the comments he did.

"Ninja missions are carried out in squads. Of course, you need individual skills but teamwork is the most essential element. Every shinobi understands this! When individuals put themselves above the squad, this can lead to failure and death!"

Kakashi reached for something in his ninja pouch. "For example…" He pulled out a kunai knife and placed it at Sasuke's throat. "Akina! Kill Naruto now, or Sasuke dies!"

I hate to admit it, but I froze. I didn't know what to do. I had exhausted my chakra to where I couldn't flash over, and I couldn't choose between my two friends. I refused to!

"That's what happens on a mission," Kakashi said with a gentler tone. "The enemy takes a hostage, and you've got an impossible choice. And someone ends up dead. On every mission, your life is on the line."

Putting away his kunai, Kakashi got off of Sasuke and strolled over to the onyx stone in the background. He stopped just in front of it and seemed to have a forlorn attitude about it.

"Did you look at this stone? The names engraved on it? They are all ninja who are honored as heroes in our village."

That can't be all there is too it. More snippits of memories came to my mind as I stared at Kakashi as he gazed at the stone. I saw a younger Kakashi in front of the stone on a rainy day, and I also saw what appeared to be Iruka with tears in his eyes. This stone can't be a good thing to have your name on.

"That's it, that's it, that's it! Now I know! I've decided I'm going to have my name engraved on that stone! I'm not gonna live and die for nothing like a dog! I'm gonna be a hero!"

I'm not sure why, but I had the urge to cringe when Naruto said this.

Kakashi looked Naruto's way as he continued. "They are a special kind of hero."

By this time, Sasuke had made his way back over to us, and he looked curious as well, but I knew he was going to let Naruto do the talking. I again didn't like the tone of voice that Kakashi was using to refer to this stone and the names on it, but Naruto went on.

"Hunh? What kind of heroes are they? Come on, tell us!"

After a moment of silence, Kakashi answered. "They're all KIA."

A cold shiver went down my spine as I realized what kind of people were on this stone memorial. Before Naruto could respond to any of this, I jumped in front of him and gave him the most determined look that I could. He looked so confused on what my problem was. Even Sasuke and Kakashi had looked my way when Naruto didn't respond.

"What's wrong, Akina?"

"You will never have your name on that stone! Do you hear me?"

Naruto faltered. "W-why?"

I couldn't say it. I just didn't want to imagine Naruto's name on this stone, never!

"They were killed in action," Sasuke answered for me.

When Naruto heard this news, his smile disintegrated almost immediately. He looked at me with a sad expression, but also a reassuring small smile. I think he understood why I was so adamant that he would not ever have his name there.

"This is a memorial stone. The names of my closest friends are engraved here."

Beside Kakashi, I could see the ghosts of a few people. Two of them looked to be around our age, a boy and a girl. The girl had short brown hair and a beautiful smile which curled the purple marks on her face in an endearing way. The boy had spiky black hair with some goggles on his forehead, and a grin which reminded me of Naruto. The last person I recognized from history scrolls to be the Fourth Hokage. These must be the friends that Kakashi was talking about.

"Alright. I'm going to give you one more chance, but I'm going to make it much harder on you. You'll have three hours to get a bell." We all perked up at this. "Eat lunch now and build up your strength… but, Naruto doesn't get any."

Needless to say, Naruto did not like that idea. "It's your punishment for falling for the most obvious of traps earlier. And if anyone tries to feed him, that person will immediately fail."

All of us did not like these rules at all, and I especially didn't like that he would punish someone for feeding and helping our teammate.

"I make the rules, you follow them. Got it?"

Nodding at our sensei, he gave Sasuke and me the two boxed lunches that had been provided by Kakashi. With that, he left in a puff of smoke to another location. I wanted to wait to eat my meal until Kakashi was out of my range before I would sneak Naruto some food.

Before I could though, Naruto's stomach had growled.

"This is no big deal! I can go without eating for days, for weeks, ya'know! This is no big deal!" Cue another stomach growl. "No problem…"

I was just about to offer some of my own lunch when Sasuke beat me to it, offering Naruto a bit of his boxed lunch. I smiled at the maturity this showed. Sasuke was putting aside his distaste for Naruto's boisterous behavior, and was going to help him out.

"I'm so proud of you two," I smiled at the two of them as I then also raised my lunch up to Naruto. "You need your strength so that we can take down that crazy Kakashi."

Sasuke and I quickly decided that we would alternate bites so that all of us had an equal share of food between the three of us. I had just given Naruto his first bite when suddenly there was an explosion in front of us.

I put down the lunch and prepared myself for anything.

"YOU!"

Kakashi leapt out of the smoke with a fierce look in his one visible eye.

"You broke the rules. I hope you're ready for the punishment!"

With a few hand signs, Kakashi had summoned up dark angry looking clouds around the entire training ground. Thunder rolled and lightning flashed in the sky, as he prepared his wrath for us.

"Any last words?"

His teeth chattering in fear, Naruto replied. "But you said…"

"Yes?"

"You said that there were three of us! That's what you said, and that's why Akina and…"

Sasuke decided it was his turn to speak out for everyone. "We're all on this squad, and we're all in it together."

I smirked at Kakashi even though I didn't feel very confident at this moment with him looking so frightening. "We're all one team, and we stand together!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, ya'know! That's right!"

Kakashi made his way towards us as he gave all of us an intense stare. "The three of you are one, that's your excuse?!"

 _Pause for dramatic flair from Kakashi…_

"You pass…"

We all were in shock. What just happened?

"You…pass…"

Naruto looked confused. "How did we pass?"

"You're the first squad that ever succeeded. The others did exactly what I said and fell into every trap. They couldn't think for themselves. A ninja must see through deception. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. That's true, but… those who abandon their friends… are worse than scum."

I could hardly believe my ears. We had passed, and Kakashi just said the most inspirational thing I had ever heard in all of my life in this new world. I just might have to start calling him Kakashi-sensei…

In the corner of my eyesight, I could see Naruto close to tears as he responded to Kakashi's words of advice. "He's uh, ya'know… he's kinda cool."

"The exercise is over! Everyone passes!" Kakashi paused to give us all a well earned thumbs up. "Squad 7 starts its first mission tomorrow!"

"WOOHOOOO!" I couldn't help but cheer.

"I did it! I did it, ya'know! I'm a ninja, ninja, NINJA!"

"Let's go home," Kakashi led us away from the training ground to get some good rest after our ordeal here.

"You forgot to UNTIE MEEEEEE!"

I giggled at Naruto thinking I had forgotten all about him, I just wanted to tease him a little bit. Skillfully twirling a shuriken around my finger, I grabbed it quickly and threw it at Naruto's restraints so that he could join us in our victory march.

Konoha's Team 7 is ready for duty!

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 **Author's Note**

Sorry for the big delay. There was a big ice storm that hit and put my power out for a few days, which meant that I couldn't finish writing this chapter for a while. Hopefully the longer chapter appeases some of you.

Remember, reviews = love! Let me know what you think!


	8. I Make My Own Pledge

**Chapter 7**

It has already been a week, and I was tired of these missions already. As Genin, we were at the lowest rank possible for any ninja and therefore we took the missions that were too easy for any other ninja ranks.

 _But this is just ridiculous!_

We had been given missions where we would be babysitting children, helping the elderly with their groceries, and then our latest mission as well. Now, I don't mean to say that these missions don't benefit our clients, but I'm starting to feel more like a servant than a ninja of Konoha.

Which leads us to our next mission: searching for a lost cat. I vaguely remember that this mission was one that almost every Genin team of the last few generations had been assigned. In my opinion, this should clue the owner in that they are doing something wrong if their cat tries to run away this often…

We were now in the forests surrounding one of the many training grounds within Konoha's lands. Our mission was to search for a brown cat with a ribbon tied around its left ear to identify it as Tora, the pet of the Daimyo's wife. We were almost in position as we three Genin separated to surround the creature from multiple sides.

"Sasuke, I'm at point B," I heard Sasuke's steady voice come through the radio I had in my ear.

Once I had found a perfect hiding spot in my sector, I radioed in as well. "Akina, I'm now at point C."

I waited to hear something from my other two comrades. As the seconds dragged by though, I almost sweat-dropped at Naruto's tardiness, Kakashi-sensei was starting to rub off on him and I didn't like it one bit.

"Naruto, I'm at point A, ya'know."

"Go slow, Naruto," Kakashi drawled as he instructed us. He didn't even see fit to help us Genin capture our target. _Probably too beneath him, that porcupine…_

"Okay, Squad 7… Hm?"

Rustling through the trees, I could see our target escape from our sight, trying to outmaneuver us. As us three Genin made chase, I could hear the leaves of nearby bushes shaking from the target hiding amongst them.

"Over there," Naruto whispered, indicating the clearing in front of us by a few dozen meters. Naruto, Sasuke, and I swiftly positioned ourselves closer to the clearing by hiding behind some trees. As we came to our new hiding spots, we barely made a sound so we would not to alert our target to our presence.

Kakashi-sensei decided to radio in. "What's your distance to the target?"

Naruto told him that we were about 5 meters away and all of us were prepared to commence the final takedown of our target. We waited for our signal, and when Kakashi-sensei gave us the go, we all sprang from behind the trees and surprised our target.

"I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM!" Naruto yelled triumphantly. He managed to capture our target, the notoriously cunning feline known as Tora. Sasuke was relaying this to Kakashi-sensei as Naruto continued to struggle with the furious scratching cat, much to my amusement.

Deciding to take matters into my own hands, I snatch Tora away from the suffering boy before he got too seriously hurt. Once my arms were secure around the cat, he relaxed and began to purr and lean into me affectionately. I had to smile at the amusing turn of events.

"What?! Why isn't the stupid cat clawing at you?"

I merely smirked at Naruto and Sasuke's curious glances, which didn't please the boys at all since they didn't get a true answer. I was contemplating the same question though and started to think it was just because of who my clan was. Dragons were revered, even in this world, as the lord of all creatures. All animals respected the dragons and their kin, which would include me. Maybe Tora could sense that I was from the Morimoto clan and that's why he didn't scratch my face off. Either way, I was enjoying my moment to gloat.

But then Naruto had to open his mouth.

"CAN'T WE GET A BETTER MISSION THAN THIS?! I HATE CATS!"

Not only did Kakashi-sensei get an earful of that complaint, so did the rest of us. I held my ears in pain from Naruto's immense volume while holding a confused Tora, and then turned to give Naruto an intense glare.

As if sensing danger, Naruto nervously faced my way with an anxious look on his face, but I must have looked terrifying since he paled. I began marching to him as he began to back up, and then I did something that he really didn't expect.

 **MRRREEEEEEOOOOWWWWWWW!**

"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed. By this time, all of us had turned down our volume for the radio so we were no longer in pain from Naruto's boisterous complaints. Now Naruto was the one suffering.

I had decided that Naruto should eat his own medicine for his dislike of cats and had tossed Tora back into his care. Obviously, Tora didn't like this. He also seemed to sense my own frustration at my friend because he was doubling his efforts to claw and pummel Naruto's face with his feline claws and kicks.

As much as I love my best friend, there were still times when I thought he needed to be punished… Oh! I mean reeducated on proper manners with a radio.

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After our mission was completed, we made our way to the mission briefing room in the Ninja Academy. Tora had now been officially returned to the Daimyo's wife who originally had given the mission to our supervisors. However, seeing the feline being smothered by the woman, I started to feel bad for the little guy, he probably had no privacy.

Naruto sure didn't feel any sympathy though. "Hahaha! Stupid cat! That kitty deserves to be squashed!"

I leaned over to Sasuke asking, "Isn't this borderline animal abuse…?"

"Hn."

 _In other words: "Who cares?"_

Sighing to myself, I noticed that Lord Third was reading through a list of next possible missions for our team. My annoyance levels increased when I heard possibilities like babysitting and other meaningless work. How was this supposed to help us as ninja? We were just wasting our talents as shinobi on this kind of labor.

Naruto seemed to voice my thoughts as he yelled while making a sign of denial with his arms. "I want to go on a real mission! Something challenging and exciting! Not this little kid stuff! Come on, old man!"

I glanced over at Sasuke who also looked tired of these missions. He caught my glance and rolled his eyes at me as I smirked back at him. I knew that he was agreeing with Naruto, but there was no way that he would admit it.

"How DARE you!" Iruka shot up from his seat beside the Hokage. "You're just a brand new Genin with no experience! Like everyone else, you start with simple missions to develop your skills and prove yourself!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!? Babysitting's not a mission! It's just a stupid—"

 **BONK!**

Down went Naruto with a well-timed punch to the head by Kakashi-sensei. For now, I was grateful to him. As much as I love Naruto, he could give me some massive headaches with all of the constant yelling that he initiates with others. I myself was about to punch him to avoid a migraine from developing.

Team 7 took notice that Lord Third was beginning an explanation of how missions worked as far as ranking goes, which caused all of us to tune him out. We knew this already from our time in the Academy. Ninjas were given missions based on their own shinobi rank and abilities. Genin were often given D-ranks which included menial tasks like the ones we were already given before our Kitty Cat Roundup mission, but sometimes they were given C-ranks as well. These were more of guarding travelers and such, there was usually an unlikely chance of dealing with anything more than bandits or thieves on those missions. Then there were missions for Chunin which were often C and B-ranks. Jonin were given A-ranks, and even S-rank missions if they were good enough. Most of those top missions were usually handled by the elite ANBU squads who were basically Konoha's secret agents. They usually handled extreme cases and even performed assassinations. All in all, these missions had a fee attached to them, increasing for the difficulty of the missions, and it helped support our ninjas and the village's economy.

So hearing the Third Hokage's explanation of the same lecture Iruka-sensei had given us in the Academy was completely unnecessary for those of us here. At some point, Naruto had turned around from his place on the ground and started up a conversation about Ramen, which I was convinced that it was the one subject Naruto would ace if it were ever made a subject at the Academy.

"So I had this Tonkotsu Ramen yesterday, and I'm thinking Miso Ramen today…"

"Silence!" the Hokage exclaimed at us. As Kakashi-sensei apologized, it became clear that the Hokage really didn't appreciate that we ignored him.

"You always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something!"

 _Well, you do call him Old Man all the time._

"But I'm not the little brat who used to pull pranks all the time. I'm a ninja now, and I want a ninja mission!" I had the sudden urge to face palm myself at Naruto's comment. Even if it was true, he still sounded like he was whining. This was proven to everyone when he turned the other way and began to pout with his cheeks all puffed up.

Despite the slightly childish nature of these actions, I couldn't help but smile with amusement. My friend certainly was an entertaining one.

"Naruto wants us to know that he's not a brat – he's a former brat, and he wants a mission… So be it."

At this, I redirected my gaze from Naruto's form to the Third Hokage in surprise. I always knew that he had a soft spot for Naruto, but I didn't expect him to cave in.

"Since you are so determined," he brought his hands up in to his chin as he gave us all a smirk, "I'm going to give you a C-ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey."

With the prospect of a mission that didn't involve babysitting, Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the "Old Man" and questioned him with anticipation.

"Really?" Now he turned around completely with the biggest smile on his whiskered face to find out what our mission was.

"Don't be impatient," Lord Third smiled affectionately at the eager Genin. "I'll bring him in now. Send in our visitor!"

The last part he directed towards the door situated behind us, so we all turned to see who we would be guarding. As the door began to slide open, flashes started coming into my mind of a battle. There were two ninjas with a chain between them attacking Kakashi-sensei, then another flash of a misted area and a ninja with a large sword over his shoulder, and then one of this ninja attacking Naruto, Kakashi-sensei captured, an immense bridge, a boy with a mask in ice, and a final one with Naruto kneeling before two graves overlooking the sea.

As I came back to reality, I had to shiver as our client stepped out and scrutinized our team harshly and continued to drink what I would assume was alcohol from the red in his cheeks. I couldn't help but feel that this guy would be the cause of some problems for us, problems that I wanted to avoid from happening…

"And you, the little one with the idiotic look on your face. You expect me to believe you're a ninja?"

I paused at this as Naruto began to laugh about the comment. It took him a few seconds to realize that this was directed at him since I was only an inch shorter than Sasuke, with Naruto being the shortest of us by a couple of inches. Naruto quickly changed moods and tried to demolish our client. Suddenly, there was a thud as a shuriken appeared by the client's face as he stopped drinking his alcohol. His eyes bugged a bit and everyone zoomed in on me as I had left my arm extended from my throw.

I had plastered an innocent smile on my face as I quickly went to defend myself. "Oops, sorry. It must have been my reflexes. You see, I tend to be violent towards those who deliberately insult my friends and our status as ninja." I direct my best smile towards our shocked client. "I'm sure that we'll get along just fine, right?"

Deciding to let it drop for now (whether that was the alcohol's fault, I couldn't say), the old man who would be our client introduced himself. "I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder, and I must return to my country. I'm building a bridge there that will change our world, and I expect you to get me there safely, even if it means giving up your life."

 _I'm so glad that this guys has so much confidence in us…_

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An hour later, all of us in Team 7 plus Tazuna were making our way to the front gates of our home, Konoha. This would mark the first day since I was brought back to the village that I would step out of these walls. And I bet that Naruto was even more excited than I was, he had never been out of the village, and voiced as much to all of us.

"I'm a traveler now, ya'know!" A smile graced my face as I watched Naruto glance around for something exciting. I, at least, had been to Mount Ryuumoto and lived with my new family. I was pleased to see that Naruto was looking forward to this journey, despite the company.

"Hey, am I supposed to trust my life to this runt? He's a joke –" He was complaining until he saw my glare in his general direction. He stopped with the insults, knowing that I might retaliate against any other bad mouthing of Naruto.

Kakashi must have realized Tazuna's turmoil, because he stepped in front of me and tried to appease our client with a chuckle. "He's with me, and I'm a Jonin, so you don't need to worry."

I practically growled at my sensei for interfering with me in making Tazuna realize he can't ridicule us. Kakashi-sensei peered at me over his shoulder and gave me his (what I'm calling) signature eye smile and seemed to sweat drop at my disgruntled face.

"Hey!"

All of us now turned to Naruto as he pointed in annoyance at Tazuna.

"Never insult a ninja. It's a big mistake. And I'm one of the greatest ninja ever! Someday, I'm going to be Hokage and you'll look up to me! My name's Naruto Uzumaki! Remember it!"

Tazuna didn't seem to be impressed as he drank some more alcohol. _This geezer is quite the old drunkard, isn't he?_

"Hokage are powerful and wise. You are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage, I'll sprout wings and fly."

 _Want to test that theory?_ I thought to myself, stewing over ways to make him fly and deciding on the most painful landing spots for him.

"Shut up! I'm willing to do anything to become Hokage, no matter what it takes! And when I do, everyone will have to admit that I'm the top ninja, including you!"

With a noise of disbelief coming from Tazuna, he replied, "You can become Hokage 10 times over, and to me, you'll still be nobody, a loser."

My anger was starting to boil at this guy. As Kakashi-sensei held Naruto back, I started to reach for my shuriken until a hand stopped me from doing so. I looked over to Sasuke, who was standing next to me. Raising an eyebrow, I was silently asked him a question. _What the hell?_

"Hn." _Don't get involved._

I narrowed my eyes. _Why not? He's insulting my friend._

His frown increased slightly and he glanced to Naruto and back at me again. _Naruto needs to fight his own battles._

I didn't like it, but Sasuke was right. Naruto needs to prove himself in his own way. And I just can't wait until the day comes that I can watch Naruto prove to everyone that they can count on him instead of looking down on him with contempt.

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It wasn't until later in the afternoon, after we had a discussion on how the Five Great Shinobi Nations worked as well as the different Kage for each of the nations, that I saw it.

A puddle.

In the middle of the road.

I knew that I had been sensing something at the edge of my field, but to think that they would reveal themselves in this way was just idiotic.

A quick glance at Kakashi-sensei confirmed that he felt it too. I figured that he had a plan, so I decided to let him handle the situation. _Of course with his normal level of laziness, that might just mean a fight for the rest of us…_

Suddenly, I hear from behind me a shocked exclamation. All of us present, turn behind us to see chains quickly wrap around our sensei as he appears shocked by the chain of events unfolding. With a short order from one of the two shinobi holding the chains around our sensei, they both tighten their grips on the chain and split Kakashi-sensei apart.

I can sense Naruto behind my slightly as he gasps at seeing the remains of our Jonin sensei being dropped to the ground in a gruesome manner. Anyone with a weak stomach would have lost their lunch at this point, which I was surprised that this didn't happen to Tazuna in hindsight.

"Ka-Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed. He froze the next second when the two ninja responsible for Kakashi's tragic end appeared behind him in a flash of movement.

"Now it's your turn."

Sasuke and I shared a quick glance before springing into action. As the two foreign ninja prepared to wrap their chain around Naruto, I swiftly went through the hand signs needed to create a Water Clone as Sasuke went to Naruto's aid.

From my periphery vision, I could see Sasuke jump into the air and pull out a shuriken, throwing it to the chain connected to the two ninja through their clawed gloves. This caused it to become trapped when the shuriken made the chain follow its movement to the trunk of a tree. After my clone had gone over to protect Tazuna, I had brought out a kunai and threw it to the dead center of the shuriken Sasuke had thrown. This way, the two enemy ninja couldn't use their combined forces with the chain again, and they were now stuck.

Sasuke landed on the two ninjas arms, who were now just out of the reach of Naruto, making him safe. In a split second, Sasuke maneuvered himself to where he was jump kicking both ninjas in the face using their trapped arms as leverage. While this was done in hopes of knocking them out (I'm sure), it also caused them to have their chain break.

Now they were free to attack us again.

Sasuke saw that one of them was heading to Tazuna and my clone (though he may not know which of us is the clone…), and headed to stop him in his tracks.

The other ninja made his way to harm Naruto. I wasn't going to have any of that! But before I can kick his ass away from my friend, the enemy manages to scratch Naruto's hand that he had raised to defend himself. I leapt into the air and spun around to gain momentum as I brought out my leg to roundhouse kick the idiot who thought it was okay to mess with Naruto.

The ninja was knocked away from the two of us and then he disappeared for a moment before he reappeared again in the arm of Kakashi-sensei who had both now unconscious shinobi in a headlock under his arms.

"Yo."

I had to smirk at our cunning sensei as he gives an eye smile at us all. I also looked over to Sasuke who had an annoyed glint in his eyes with his pouting face. I then noticed how his form is directly in front of my Water Clone, and I couldn't help the smirk that made its way onto my face.

"Huh? But he was – what?"

I glanced back at Naruto to see him gazing at the pile of Kakashi-sensei's "remains" which happened to be a bunch of logs since he used the Replacement Jutsu to escape from the two foreign ninjas at the beginning of the fight.

"Naruto, sorry I didn't help you right away. I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

 _What am I, chopped liver?!_

"I just didn't think you'd freeze up like that."

I was stewing in my anger for a second before I really registered Kakashi-sensei's words to Naruto. He really did freeze up… Why? Naruto and I would spar often, he should know how to defend himself.

"Good job, Sasuke, very smooth," Kakashi-sensei complimented him. He then turned to my direction, ignoring my clone. "You too, Akina. Nice clone, by the way."

Sasuke looked surprised as what he thought was me disappeared into a puddle of water beside him since I expelled the jutsu. He swivled his head to look over at me and had an angry tick on his forehead. My smirk just widened as I knew that he was only concerned with protecting me.

I walked over to him but paused when he called out to Naruto.

"Hey."

"Yeah?" Naruto asked uncertainly.

"You're not hurts, are ya?" Sasuke smirked at him. "Scaredy-cat."

 _You're just upset that I surprised you, and you're taking it out on Naruto… or are you actually concerned for someone besides me and yourself…?_

Naruto didn't take kindly to this comment though. "Sasuke!"

"Naruto, stand still," Kakashi-sensei called out.

We all turned to see what was wrong with our sensei.

"These ninja have poison in their claws. We need to take it out of you quickly. You have to open the wound and remove it. It's in your blood, so don't move around. That spreads the poison."

As Kakashi-sensei proceeded to tie up our enemies, I stepped beside Sasuke. He glanced my way and looked away with what I thought was a slight pout on his face.

Giggling to myself internally, I asked him a question. "Was the strong, silent, emo-boy Sasuke worried about little ol' me?"

"Hn," he still refused to look at me. Chuckling out loud this time, I looked over to where sensei was almost done with tying the ropes.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Sasuke still looked away from me, but he hesitated. After a moment, he looked back in front, still looking away from me, and nodded his head slightly. I smiled a little at him, no longer smug. Seeing the vulnerable side to Sasuke was something that let me know that he cared for me. And, despite what some of the fangirls may think, Sasuke and I were not together. We were the brother and sister duo that looked out for each other.

It was funny though, when you looked at our coloring, we were almost the yin and yang to each other. But we didn't care. He was my older brother, and my teammate. I was his only sister, and the one sibling that he was meant to protect. Nothing would change that.

Now that sensei was done tying up the two troublemakers to a tree, we all gathered around for a meeting, even Tazuna joined us.

"They're Chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist," Kakashi-sensei announced. "Their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting, no matter what the sacrifice."

"How did you know about our ambush?" one of them asked.

"Idiots."

Everyone turned to look at me now. "On a clear day after no rain for weeks, there just so happens to be a puddle in the middle of the road? Not the brightest of ideas for an ambush, it was too obvious for anyone who is paying attention, plus the fact that you didn't even attempt to hide your chakra signatures."

Kakashi-sensei nodded to me, "Precisely."

"In that case, why'd you leave it for the Genin to do the fighting?"

 _Because sensei is lazy._

"I could have taken them out quickly," Kakashi-sensei admitted. "But then I'd have learned nothing. I had to know who their target was, and what they were after."

"So you're not just lazy?" I muttered out loud to our sensei, who then sweat dropped for a second.

Tazuna didn't like the sound of this. "What are you getting at?"

"This: I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or it they were after you, the master bridge builder." He gave our client a glare as he continued. "When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection from robbers and highway men. You didn't say there were ninja looking for you, hunting you down."

Our would-be client looked down in shame it seemed as sensei continued to drill him for his thoughtless actions. "If we knew this, it would be a B-rank mission or higher. Our task was simply to get you to your destination and protect you while you finished building your bridge. If we knew we'd be fielding attacks from enemy ninja, we would have staffed differently and charged for the cost of a B mission."

As sensei finished up with explaining that this mission was beyond our abilities as Genin to perform, I turned my sights to Naruto. He was clutching his hand and looking at it in worry and terror. This was his first mission outside of the village, and it was going very wrong. But when I thought to what I saw in those flashes back in the mission briefing room, the more I thought that this might be okay. I'm not sure if that is selfish of me, but I didn't like the idea of someone on our team dying, or more than just one…

I must have missed a few things because after I spaced out, my mind was interrupted by the sudden spray of red. Naruto had stabbed his hand!

"Why am I so different? Why am I always – argh!"

 _This doofus!_

"Stop that, Naruto!" I voiced out of concern.

"I worked so hard to get here, pushing myself until it hurt, training with Akina and alone for hours, anything to get stronger, to reach my dream."

Blood began to drip down from his hand to the ground. I grew concerned again, but I began to understand what Naruto was doing, and I knew that I shouldn't stop him.

"I will never back down again and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke or Akina. Upon this wound, I make this pledge, ya'know…"

I was so in awe of Naruto right now. I know that he always wanted to be the one to help me when we were training, but that's not usually how it worked. I was normally helping him learn and understand. Despite us being the best of friends, I know that he just wanted to be needed by someone, including me.

"Bridge builder, I'll complete this mission and protect you with this kunai knife." This lovable idiot swirled back around at us and gave us the most determined look I have ever seen on his face up to now. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

I think he was saying that last part more to me than anyone else.

"Naruto," Kakashi-sensei called. "That was really cool how you took the poison out and all. But if you lose any more blood, you're going to die."

Cue the silence.

Naruto started to turn a sick blue color at the thought of dying, and his hand started to shake a bit. Kakashi-sensei appeared beside him with the biggest eye smile I had seen from him yet.

"Good idea to stop the bleeding now, seriously."

And now cue the freak out by Naruto…

"Give me your hand, you masochist."

Once he was in front of me, I quickly grabbed his hand and focused chakra into my own hand and placed it over Naruto's cut. I watched as my healing chakra proceeded to seal the wound on the surface. I could tell there was some residual Kyuubi chakra that was healing the rest of the wound, so I let it work its magic.

Once I had cleaned and wrapped Naruto's hand up, I gave my seal of approval for him to inspect my work. He looked at the bandages and smiled back at me with an appreciative grin on his face. I then looked to everyone else, and they had surprised looks on their faces. Well, Kakashi-sensei and Tazuna did. Sasuke looked more impressed than anything else.

"What? I didn't say that one of my hobbies was learning new healing techniques. This directly implies that I know medical ninjutsu. Speaking of…"

I turned a glare onto Naruto now that I knew his wound was taken care of. He flinched a bit at my sudden change in demeanor. With a glint in my eye, I suddenly punch him on top of his head with a bit more strength than normal. I could practically hear everyone else wince at Naruto's misfortune to face my wrath.

Anime swirls in his eyes, he couldn't help but ask, "What was that for?!"

"For being an idiot," I replied bluntly.

"What?!"

I crouched down now so that I was at eye level with him and again he flinched away from me.

"You know what my dream is, don't you?"

Naruto looked back at me confused for a second before his eyes widened in sudden understanding. He had a tiny smile that was starting to show on his face now.

"'My dream for the future is to be the greatest kunoichi I can be so that I can protect my precious people,' do you remember that?" I asked him. "Because that includes knuckleheaded best friends like you. You will never have to prove yourself to me. I know what a great Hokage you are going to be, and I can't wait for everyone else to see what I see in you already. I've always believed in you, and I need you here with me too. Without you, I wouldn't have any friends. You were my first friend, so it's only natural that I want to protect you."

"Akina…"

"So I make my own pledge. I will never let my friends suffer or die as long as there is breath left in me. I will never betray my friends' trust in me, and I will not back down from my promises. This is my new path, one I will walk with my friends, ya'know."

A cheeky and triumphant smile grace Naruto's face as I finished my own little speech to everyone present. Sasuke had a smirk firmly set in place, and Kakashi-sensei looked pleased with my actions. Tazuna just looked at us like he was seeing us for the first time, seeing us as real ninja.

Deciding to break up the attention from being solely on me, I stood up and began to walk away from everyone as I set my sights for the Wave country.

"Are you knuckleheads just going to keep daydreaming, or are we continuing our mission?" I asked with a huge smile on my own face.

Soon everyone was following behind until both Naruto and Sasuke were at my sides, helping me lead the two adults on towards the rest of our mission.

And I couldn't help but feel on top of the world with my two most precious people beside me, walking with me on this new path I had set for myself.

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 **Author's Note**

Sorry for the LATE post. There was an accident that my great-grandmother was in and I've been going back home on most of the weekends to help her out. The weekend is the best time for me to write without distractions, so since I haven't had a weekend to work on the story... I think you get the idea. I'm sorry about the long wait.

On a positive note! I have a friend who is reading this story just like you guys, and she asked if I had a voice reference for Akina. She also asked if I had any idea what my opening would be if this was a show. Strange friend, strange questions (love you ;))... But I thought I would share that info with you guys.

English Voice: Brina Palencia (Shirayuki – Snow White with the Red Hair)

Japanese Voice: Megumi Toyoguchi (Winry – FMA: Brotherhood)

Opening: Crossing Fields – Sword Art Online (NateWantsToBattle cover)

Ending: Ray of Light – FMA: Brotherhood (Nicki Gee cover)

Once again, I hope you liked this chapter and please leave a review or favorite/follow this story. Thanks everyone for all of your support! :)


	9. Speak of the Demon

**Chapter 8**

All that echoed off of the waves in the fog-infested channel was silence. Nothing disturbed this place.

At least, that's what we wanted everyone to think.

All of us in Team 7 with Tazuna and one of his friends from the Land of Waves were making our way through this very channel in a long boat. We were all hoping to arrive safely in the very place where many ninja wanted to kill our client so that he could never finish building a bridge that would change the country forever.

I was anxiously waiting behind Naruto and sitting across from Sasuke as we waited to be able to catch our first glimpse of Tazuna's bridge through the thick fog around us. Naruto was starting to get twitchy and I knew that Sasuke was growing impatient. I know that neither of them really liked to travel by boat very much. Not many people in the Land of Fire do like this mode of transportation. Being from Mount Ryuumoto myself, I much rather prefer traveling by air, but that's just my opinion.

"The bridge isn't far now," Tazuna's friend announced softly as he continued to propel us forward with an oar from the back of the vessel. He was trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to alert any ninja that may be lurking in the mist. I couldn't say that I blame him since he is just a civilian and they were all up against ninjas for hire.

"Our destination's just ahead… the Land of Waves."

Just after hearing this, I could see the mist clearing out in front of us. Beyond the boundary of this fog was a large structure, and I had to assume it was the bridge Tazuna was building.

It was spectacular! I had never come across anything quite like it in this world! It definitely wasn't the Golden Gate Bridge, but for the technology that was virtually nonexistent in this world now, it was an impressive feat to build this.

"Whoa! It's huge!"

I sweat dropped at Naruto's tactlessness. He just couldn't remember to keep his voice down. As the boatman griped at him for being so noisy, I couldn't help but sigh in exasperation at Naruto, who seemed to always forget that a ninja's greatest asset was the element of surprise and concealment.

 _Oh, well…_ I thought.

My thoughts returned to the present when I heard Kakashi-sensei begin to make an inquiry to our client. "Mr. Tazuna, before we reach the pier, I want to ask you something. The men who are after you, I need to know why. If you don't tell us, I'm afraid I'll have to end this mission when we drop you ashore."

I glanced at Kakashi-sensei with a little hesitance. Did he really expect us to just leave Tazuna alone when there were dangerous ninja after him? I certainly hope not.

"I have no choice but to tell you," Tazuna replied, but then rethought his last statement. "No, I want you to know the truth. Like you said, this is beyond the scope of the original mission. The one who seeks my life is a very short man who casts a very long and deadly shadow."

Images in my mind snapped by quickly as I listened to Tazuna. A midget-sized man with a cane standing at the top of a river of blood and bodies. He was smiling. I could hear people screaming. I could see someone who wore a rope as a headband and a cross-shaped scar on his chin smile as he was cut down, and I heard a child's agonizing cry as the images faded out. I wanted to cry, but I knew that this moment was not the time or place for it. Whoever this man was, he was someone that I wanted to help defeat.

"You know him," Tazuna continued. "At least, I'm sure you've heard his name before. He's one of the wealthiest men in the world, the shipping magnet, Gato."

Kakashi-sensei appeared to be quite surprised by this information. "Gato? Of Gato Transport? He's a business leader. Everyone knows him."

Well, strike one for Kakashi-sensei, because I didn't know who the guy was. However, I had heard of Gato Transport before. Konoha used his company to transport civilian supplies from across the oceans to our village all the time. I felt sick knowing that our village was using this man's company, and he just hurt others to get what he wanted. I had to hope that Konoha didn't have any knowledge of his wrongdoings.

"Gato is a very powerful tycoon from a famous company, that's true. But below the surface, with the same ruthless methods he uses to take over businesses and nations, he sells drugs and contraband using gangs and ninja."

Tazuna glanced up. "It was one year ago when Gato first set his sight on the Land of Waves. He came to our island and used his vast wealth to take control of our transport and shipping. Anyone who tried to stand in his way simply disappeared. In an island nation, a man who controls the sea controls everything: finance, government, our very lives. But there's one thing he fears: the bridge. When it's complete it will join us to the land, and that will break his control."

Now looking to Kakashi-sensei, Tazuna's face was filled with determination for his people. "I am the bridge builder."

I could see everyone else made the connection as well. "Since you're in charge of the bridge, you're in the way of his continued control over the people and land…"

"That means, those guys we fought in the forest, they were working for Gato," Sasuke surmised.

Naruto just continued to look confused about the situation, but now as both Sasuke and I were talking, he seemed to contemplate the severity of the mission for not only Tazuna, but also for the Land of Waves as well.

"I don't understand," Kakashi-sensei retorted. "If you knew he was dangerous, knew he'd send ninja to eliminate you, why did you hide that from us?"

 _Isn't it obivious?_

Everyone looked my way. For a moment, I only looked back at them. With a blush of embarrassment, I realized that I must have said this aloud instead of exclusively in my own thoughts.

"W-well, I-I mean… The Land of Waves isn't a large nation, and Tazuna just said that Gato was in control of all of the sea, which means he controls the nation. So that would include all of their finances. To maintain this vice grip on a nation that depends on the sea, he would probably tax them just to bring in what little food they could catch for the day, for transporting goods such as supplies for this bridge, or even residential taxing so they can keep their homes and belongings. All of it would compound and would result in a depression of the wealth of the land."

At the end of my explanation, Kakashi-sensei seemed to be mildly impressed with my fast thinking. Tazuna looked a little amazed that I could quickly read the situation that the Land of Waves was facing from what small amount of information he had already given. Naruto and Sasuke… they were giving me blank stares. If this were a different situation, I might have laughed at their identical expressions.

I decided to make it simpler for them. "In other words, no one really has the money to pay for anything above a C-rank mission. They had no other option."

Tazuna nodded to me. "If you end the mission when you drop me ashore, there will be no bridge. They'll assassinate me before I reach home."

My eyebrow started to twitch slightly. _Okay, I get it, but does he have to rub it in?_

"But don't feel bad about that. Of course, my sweet little grandson will be upset. He'll cry, 'Grandad! I want my Grandad!'" Tazuna tried to imitate a child's voice. I was growing more irritated by this man by the second. He just really wanted to rub this in with some salt and watch us squirm a little, didn't he?

I could see Naruto not faring much better than I was. Even Sasuke seemed to be annoyed. I had assumed he would have just ignored all of Tazuna's attempts to make us stay. But he was pouting and had a bead of sweat on his face as he faced away from my gaze. _Softy…_

"Oh!" _Enough already!_

"And my daughter will condemn the ninja of the Hidden Leaves, denouncing and blaming you for abandoning her father, and living her life in sorrow."

 _Ugh!_

"Oh, well. It's not your fault. Forget it."

Groans could be heard all around from our team. Tazuna knew how to lay it on thick. Kakashi-sensei decided to answer for all of us.

"Well, I guess we have no other choice," he shrugged his shoulders with a sweat drop. "We'll have to keep guarding you."

I couldn't help but feel totally conned…

It was just a few minutes later that we came to a tunnel in the side of the wall which lined the edge of the port, just where the bridge started. After we entered the long tunnel, I noticed that the fog didn't reach all the way into the space and the air was clear. There was a light at the end which let me know that there were clearer skies waiting for us at the other end of the passage.

When we emerged, bright skies were ahead and dark mists were behind us, beyond the wall. Trees gathered around each other as they reached above the water, resembling small islands in the bay. A short distance from the shore, there were docks which also had homes adorning them. But these homes looked like they had seen better days. Plus, it was just too quiet. There were no sounds of people anywhere. I couldn't hear anyone, not even any children. It was surprising. Despite how early in the morning it now was, there should still be someone up and about.

I said nothing though as we finally reached the dock and got off the long boat. Tazuna thanked the boatman for getting us this far and turned our way.

"Take me to my home, and I mean get me there in one piece."

"Right," we all responded.

Later, after we had been traveling for a few minutes, Sasuke and Naruto seemed to be competing with each other. Sasuke had gone ahead of Naruto, which caused him to want to catch up, and so on.

 _Geez! Can't the two of them just be friends already?!_

I was about to end things, but Naruto suddenly ran ahead of us all. He got into a stance and began looking around. _What was he doing?_

"Over there!" Naruto pulled out a kunai and swiftly threw it into the trees on our right side. He stayed down in his throwing pose for a few seconds before he tried to look cool. He then announced, "It was just a mouse."

Sasuke had an unimpressed look on his face, but I knew that deep down, he was amused by all of this showboating that Naruto was doing. I, on the other hand, was not pleased. Their bickering has caused me many headaches, and I was close to my breaking point.

"Naruto, those are kunai knives. They're dangerous!" Kakashi-sensei scolded him.

Tazuna growled at Naruto as well. "Stop trying to scare me, you scruffy little dwarf!"

Ignoring everyone, Naruto continued to look around him. "Is someone hiding over there? No! They're over there! Over there!"

 _Huh?_

Turning towards us, Naruto threw his other kunai into the trees behind us. "Over there!"

 _What was that…?_

Tazuna had enough of Naruto's antics and went over to scold him with a punch to his blond cranium. Normally, I would have been the one disciplining him on his manners and then giving a talking to Sasuke for egging him on as well. But something wasn't quite right.

I saw Kakashi-sensei go into the bushes and take a look at who, according to Naruto, was following us. It turned out to be a solitary snowy rabbit who seemed like he was about to have a panic attack at almost losing his life by a kunai knife above his head. Again, Tazuna had a few choice words to say about animal abuse and such things. From the corner of my eye, I could see Sasuke give a small smirk at what was happening. He was like the sibling who riled up the other sibling and watched him get in trouble by the parents. But I would revisit this parallel later in my brain.

I couldn't help but look around us in the trees and amongst the bushes. I could feel Kakashi-sensei doing the same a small distance from where I was. He must have felt it too. There was a spike of chakra nearby, and I was also curious about the rabbit's color.

It was white.

That only happens in the winter, when there isn't a lot of sunlight and there is snow on the ground. It makes it easier to blend into the surroundings.

But it wasn't winter… So what was going on?

Growing more apprehensive and curious, I closed my eyes and stretched my field of perception so that I could run a sweep of any chakra signatures in the area. I could almost picture each person in the clearing in my mind. There was Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Sasuke, and Tazuna as well. Now, I stretched it even further. And widened my field mo—

 _There's someone else here!_

"GET DOWN!"

I grabbed the person closest to me, which happened to be Naruto, and brought him down to the ground with me. Just a split second after this happened, a large object went whistling over our heads. It looked like a—a sword of some kind. A very large one at that!

It was a Kubikiribōchō, a decapitating carving knife! It was like a massive broadsword which resembled a giant form of a butcher's knife. This thing was meant to take people's head clean off in a single sweep. And this gigantic sword had lodged itself in a tree.

Then, standing on top of the handle of the sword was a man. He was facing away from us ( _making some sort of cool guy entrance!_ ) and he atmosphere of his chakra made me want to crawl in a hole and cower away. Not that I would actually do that…

As I caught a glimpse of his face, he suddenly became familiar in more ways than one. I had met this guy before!

"Well, well," Kakashi-sensei started. "If it isn't Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist…"

From beside me, I could see Naruto glancing at Sasuke and then at Zabuza. His expression morphed into one that I knew well from the Academy days. It was a look of determination with a hint of nervousness involved as well. I instantly knew that he was going to try and take on Zabuza. I couldn't let this happen, but Naruto ran ahead of me before I could protest to this insane idea. Thankfully, Kakashi-sensei intervened just in time.

"You're in the way. Get back."

"But why?" Naruto almost whined.

"He's not like those other ninja. He's in a whole other league." Kakashi-sensei closed his one visible eye in exasperation. "If he's our opponent, I'll need this." He was then reaching for his headband near his hidden eye. I could hear Naruto gasp and I could practically feel Sasuke tense up from where I was standing. I already had an idea from the story what was hidden behind Kakashi-sensei's headband, but I couldn't help but become transfixed to this moment when everyone on Team 7 would finally see just how awesome our sensei really was.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye… Did I get that right?"

Stepping closer to Sasuke, I wanted to be near someone I trusted in this situation, and Sasuke happened to be closer than Naruto was at the moment. As I got near him, his eyes never wavered from their narrowed glance at our sensei. I knew he must be wondering about the Sharingan right now. About how Kakashi-sensei had it.

"Now quick!" Kakashi-sensei suddenly called. "Manji Formation! Protect the bridge builder, and stay out of this fight. I taught you teamwork. Now it's time to use it."

Now everyone could finally see what was behind Kakashi-sensei's headband. His eye was marred with a thin vertical scar that seemed to run from his forehead to past the barrier of his mask. But he had now opened his hidden eye, a red eye with a black iris and three comma mark type of signs spaced around the iris. This was the Sharingan eye.

"Well," Zabuza remarked. "Looks like I get to see the Sharingan in action. This is an honor."

Naruto had enough of being ignorant. "Everyone keeps saying Sharingan, Sharingan. Will someone please tell me what a Sharingan is?!"

"Sharingan."

Everyone turned their gazes over to Sasuke. I knew the significance of this information to him, as I can imagine that Kakashi-sensei did as well. The Sharingan eye was something that was passed down genetically within the Uchiha clan. Sasuke's clan. Which means that the Sharingan is a Kekkei Genkai, or a bloodline limit. I would even hazard a guess that this is the very reason that Sasuke was placed on Kakashi-sensei's team.

"A rare power that resides in the eyes," Sasuke continued to explain. "The user of this visual jutsu, or doujutsu, can instantly see and comprehend any genjutsu, taijutsu, and ninjutsu, and reflect the attack back on the attacker. The Sharingan is a special, rare form of doujutsu. However, there's more to the Sharingan than that. A lot more."

"You got it right, boy."

Now my attention was solely on Zabuza.

"But you only scratched the surface. The Sharingan can analyze an opponent's technique, and then copy it to the smallest detail."

 _Isn't that what Sasuke basically said? "Reflect the attack back on the attacker"…_

Suddenly, a fog rolled into the area. It was getting hard to see anything in front of us.

"As for you, Jonin, in the assassination unit of the Hidden Mist, we had a standing order to destroy you on sight. Your profile was in our Bingo Book. It called you 'the man who copied over 1,000 jutsu'. Kakashi, the Copy Ninja."

There was an air of amazement coming from Naruto and Tazuna, who directed their attention to Kakashi-sensei. I was just glad that none of the attention was on –

"And I can't pass up the chance to cash in on the bounty for the last of the Morimoto clan, Akina Morimoto, the daughter of Tsubasa Morimoto, kunoichi of the Hidden Mist."

 _I spoke too soon…_

Gasps came from my team. I didn't want to see their shocked expressions. I didn't want to see the suspicious glances from them. I couldn't handle it.

I felt a hand on my shoulder suddenly. Turning my head to my right, I saw Sasuke give me a look that plainly said, "idiot". He didn't look at me with an expression I had anticipated. His eyes instead said that he trusted me, that he had my back, and that he was there for me. Gaining some courage from this, I swiveled my head over in Naruto's direction, and saw a similar expression on his whiskered face.

I couldn't be more thankful for my friends than I was in this moment.

"Seems the brats don't care that your clan is originally from the Hidden Mist… Oh, well. Enough talking. I need to exterminate the old man now."

With this being said, all of us Genin in Team 7 surged into motion. We surrounded Tazuna in the front, creating the Manji Formation. Sasuke was in front of Tazuna, I was at Sasuke's right side and Naruto was at his left. All of us facing the other way so that we had a wide field of vision in case Zabuza decided to attack the bridge builder, and to look out for any other ninjas that Zabuza might have lurking in the foliage. Kakashi-sensei was straight in front of us all, prepared to take on the ninja we could see.

"So, I'll have to eliminate you first, eh, Kakashi?" Zabuza thought aloud. "So be it."

Using his strength in his legs, Zabuza pulled his giant sword free from the tree it had been encased in, and leapt to the river near our path. I ignored Naruto's comments about how Zabuza was now standing on the water. If this were any other situation, I might have retorted about how biblical this moment was (other worldly joke), but I knew that he was merely using his chakra through his feet to stay on top of the surface. All higher class ninja knew this trick.

What I was concerned with at the moment was the large chakra that Zabuza was bringing to the forefront of his system. I could feel the energy increasing like as if I was standing next to an inferno, but it wasn't hot. This feeling brought deadly chills to my mind, just like I remembered Zabuza to be.

Zabuza suddenly unleashed this chakra and spread it into the area surrounding his body and then throughout the clearing. I knew that this was the Hidden Mist Jutsu, which helps conceal an enemy and makes it hard for a Sensor, such as myself, to pinpoint a ninja's location since the air is so saturated with chakra now. How was I meant to track his movements now?

Kakashi-sensei was walking away from us now, towards where Zabuza was last seen.

"He'll come after me first."

"But," Naruto wondered, "who is he?"

"Zabuza Momochi," I remarked before Kakashi-sensei could reply. "He was the former leader of the Hidden Mist's Assassination Unit. Which means that he is a master of the Silent Killing Technique."

That made Naruto nervous. "S-s-s-s-silent?"

Kakashi-sensei took over now. "As the name suggests, it happens in an instant. Without sound or warning of any kind. It's so fast, you pass from this life without realizing what has happened. The Sharingan cannot fully neutralize it, so don't lower your guard."

I gulped. I knew just how dangerous Zabuza was. Who knew that someone from Mother's past would wind up being an enemy of mine now. I really didn't want to think of what he would do if he did eliminate all of my comrades and take me back to the Hidden Mist.

"Well, if we fail, we only lose our lives."

 _Thanks for the positive enthusiasm…_

After this was said, the fog started to become even more difficult to see through, which made Naruto exclaim quietly for once. This made Tazuna remind him of the fact that they were surrounded by the ocean on this island nation, so fogs were common. But it was more than that. I could feel the chakra in the air, clouding my Sensor abilities.

Then, right before our eyes, Kakashi-sensei vanished. This made me nervous. Not only was it hard for me to pinpoint Zabuza, but I couldn't discern Zabuza's chakra from Kakashi-sensei's at the moment. I couldn't focus.

I was terrified.

"Eight points."

I almost gasped out in terror.

"Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart…"

 _Those are—_

"Now, which will be my kill point?"

Suddenly, there was another burst of chakra, this time in front of us. The chakra acted as a gust of wind and I could finally see since the mist was cleared from the clearing. I could see our sensei ahead of us again. But with this chakra came the feeling that this was a real ninja showdown. I could feel Kakashi-sensei's Killing Intent. That atmosphere that creeps into your skin and slowly makes its way into your very soul, letting you know that death is imminent.

Since it was our sensei, I knew that he would never direct this towards us. However, I could almost feel Sasuke trembling beside me. I glanced his way to see beads of sweat running down his face and a terrified expression on his face. The very fact that we had both seen death made this situation even more real.

His hand was clutching tightly around his kunai knife, but then he began to bring his other hand up as well. I almost shrieked out loud realizing that he was about to harm himself just to escape the Killing Intent in the air.

My hand flew to his shoulder to stop him from using his kunai, and I heard our sensei call out Sasuke's name as well.

"Calm down. I'll protect you with my life. All of you."

I had to admit, our sensei was cool.

"I will not allow my comrades to die. Trust me." Kakashi-sensei looked back at us with his signature eye smile, telling us that everything would be okay in the end. I was instantly relieved to have our sensei there. I also realized that I couldn't freeze up now. I also had promised to protect my comrades, and I would do this.

"I wouldn't be so sure."

He was behind us!

Zabuza was directly in the middle of our Manji Formation, between all of us and Tazuna, our only weak spot. And it was too late to do anything. I would never be able to turn around in time to block his sword, even if I could match his strength.

But I didn't have to.

Kakashi-sensei was suddenly there, pushing away all of us from Zabuza's reach, and blocking his attack on the bridge builder. As I regained my composure from being knocked back, I turned to see that our sensei had lodged a kunai right into Zabuza's side. But there was something wrong with this picture. I didn't see any blood. It was…water…

Then, from the mists, I could make out another Zabuza as he was preparing to use his deadly weapon. "Sensei," Naruto called. "Behind you!"

The Zabuza that Kakashi-sensei had run through instantly turned into water.

 _It was a Water Clone?!_

And now, the true Zabuza was swinging his sword at our sensei. The result was Kakashi-sensei being chopped in half. I would have called out to him if it weren't so easy to spot now that I knew what I was looking for. And I was proven to be right when Kakashi-sensei's form suddenly turned into water as well.

Sensei had been able to see through the mist and simultaneously copy the Water Clone Jutsu that Zabuza had used as he broke through the Manji Formation. Now, Kakashi-sensei had a kunai knife to Zabuza's throat, aimed for his jugular.

"Don't move. It's over."

The rest of us were looking at this spectacle with amazement. I had seen my dragon family fight before, but that was usually with spars, so no one was trying to kill each other. I slowly got up from where I had landed after being pushed back, away from danger.

"You're finished."

"ALRIGHT!"

Naruto was cheering on the other side of Sensei and Zabuza, happy that this was all over with now, but I was a little more skeptical. Believe me, I didn't doubt Kakashi-sensei's skills, but this just seemed too easy. Zabuza was an S-class rogue ninja, who had previously held an ANBU rank in the Hidden Mist. That was a whole rank above Jonin…

 _Kakashi-sensei was an ANBU too, Akina_ , my brain was telling me. But I just had this feeling in my gut that I couldn't shake.

My suspicions were confirmed when Zabuza started to laugh. "Finished? You really don't get it, do you?"

I narrowed my eyes at Zabuza. _What was he thinking?_

"Your technique is nothing but a crass imitation. I'll never be defeated by a mere copycat ninja like you."

 _Why, you—_

Zabuza laughed again. "You are full of surprises, though. You already copied my Water Clone Justu when you made your little speech. Very skillfully executed. You made your clone say those words to draw my attention while you hid in the mist waiting for me to make my move."

 _If he had all of this figured out, then—_

 _It was a trap!_

"Nice try, but I'm not that easy to fool."

The Zabuza that Kakashi-sensei had cornered had also been a clone! I had been too relieved to take a closer look at the fact that he had also felt the same as the other Zabuza clone. Now there was another Zabuza right behind Kakashi-sensei, and he was in the perfect position to deal some real damage to our sensei.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed. "That one's a clone, too!"

Just as Zabuza was swinging that almighty sword horizontally at his enemy, Kakashi-sensei ducked down, narrowly missing decapitation.

But the rogue ninja was prepared for this. Using his grounded sword as an anchor, he pushed off of it so that his kick to Kakashi-sensei's face would be that much stronger. This attack caused the Jonin to go flying away from us all, into the water.

"Sensei!" both Naruto and I cried at the same time.

"He has great physical skill, too," Sasuke muttered.

Not only that, but Zabuza had also jumped into the river as well. And Kakashi-sensei was still in there!

As Sensei made it to the surface, he examined the water, as if confused by it. I couldn't take it any longer. I made a beeline for the river, trying to stop this from happening.

"GET OUT OF THE WATER!" I yelled as I made my way to him. "There's way too much chakra for it to be normal!"

"The girl is correct. Water Prison Jutsu!"

No! Zabuza was right behind Kakashi-sensei, making hand signs. In an instant, he was encased within a ball of swirling water. I knew that this water would be impenetrable to any outside force, or internal force as well.

Kakashi-sensei was trapped!

"So much for the great Kakashi… I'll finish you off later." I could hear the smirk in his voice. "But first, your little friends will have to be eliminated."

I had stopped by the water's edge before, but now I quickly leapt back as I saw Zabuza gather chakra for another jutsu. Forming from the water in front of where he held our sensei captive, a new Zabuza stood and made his way to the shoreline.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja. When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja."

I quickly got in front of Naruto, who stood frozen in fear at this situation at hand. I wanted to be his first line of defense, and if he got over this fear, he would have my back as well.

"When you've become so deadly, your profile is entered in my Bingo Book, then you may have earned the title ninja." Now he formed a hand sign once more, calling forth the mists around him, and disappearing before our eyes. "But to call upstarts like you ninja is a joke."

Somehow, he got behind me and in front of Naruto. I couldn't turn around in time to help him as Zabuza kicked him back like he had done to Sensei. As he went flying back, Naruto's headband had fallen from his forehead, landing near Zabuza's feet. To make this situation even more infuriating, Zabuza had the gall to stomp down on Naruto's precious headband that he had received from Iruka-sensei.

"You're just brats."

Having enough of this, I finished turning around towards the enemy. I did a quick maneuver of ducking down and propelling myself up to place a strengthened kick at Zabuza's face. He caught my foot as it drew near my target, but I knew that he would do that. I remembered this move that Sasuke had taught me, and I decided to try it now.

With my left fist, I brought it up to his face, prepared for him to catch it too. Now he had no hands to block with, so I brought up my left leg and prepped my right fist with a large amount of chakra to enhance my strength. As Zabuza unexpectedly blocked my kick with his elbow, I was now upside down from all the maneuvering I had done, and I had a clear shot at his stomach. I began to bring my fist forward to deal him a world of pain, but I felt like I was suddenly on a merry-go-round as I was swung and then thrown into the air.

Before I could go crashing into a tree nearby, I spun in midair to position my feet towards the tree. When I made contact, I bent my knees to compensate for the force behind my being tossed by a rogue ninja, and lightly hopped to the ground at the base of the tree. Glancing up to where Zabuza was, I quickly saw that despite my best efforts, he was completely unscathed from my attempt to take him on. I was largely disappointed in this. I had hoped I could make some small difference from what I had seen in my flashes of memory. I didn't want to be useless weight to my team.

"Listen! Get the bridge builder and run!"

I zoned in where Kakashi-sensei was trapped inside of Zabuza's jutsu, wondering why he was telling us to flee.

"You can't win this fight! He's using all his power to keep me in this prison. So he can only fight you with his Water Clone. But the clone can't go far from his real body. If you get away from him, he can't follow. Now run!"

That's great in theory, but I won't let that happen. I myself use Water Clones, so I know exactly how they work. While it's true that after a certain amount of distance, an opponent's clone will disperse, it isn't an exact science. If the ninja trains hard enough with their clones, they can learn to increase that distance. It is still limited, but being Genin, we might not get far enough away before Zabuza overtakes us.

We also have another problem.

Running away from someone precious is completely against my own philosophy.

"We've got to do it!"

I turn my gaze over to the side and see Sasuke charging at Zabuza.

 _Idiot! A charge is never going to work!_

Sasuke quickly threw several kunai in Zabuza's direction. When Zabuza went to swipe away the oncoming weapons, Sasuke must have known that his opponent would have a moment of blindness to whatever was directly in front of him due to the sheer size of the sword blocking his field of vision. As this happened, Sasuke leapt into the air above Zabuza's head.

Bringing a kunai into his two hands, Sasuke let out a battle cry.

However, Zabuza was an experienced ninja. He stretched out his hand and expertly grabbed Sasuke by the throat before any damage could be done to him. Then he threw my teammate just as easily as he had thrown me away.

Sasuke went sliding across the ground and I couldn't help but feel shocked. I knew a direct charge wouldn't work, but I still had faith in Sasuke. To see him be so easily beaten by this assassin from the Hidden Mists, I could barely wrap my mind around it.

And a new fear crept into my skin. Would I be able to protect everyone?

To my other side, I heard a pained gasp. My eyes widened as I turned to see what was going on, fearing that Zabuza had created another clone…

But it was Naruto…

Staring at his hand…

His injured hand…

As Naruto struggled to get up from the ground, I started remembering that moment we had shared with his oath of pain. The one moment when we both made a promise to each other and ourselves.

Without warning, Naruto released a battle cry of his own and charged for Zabuza.

"Stop!" I cried. "A frontal assault won't work!"

"Naruto, no!" Kakashi-sensei hollered through the water.

Rushing towards his opponent, Naruto executed a slide towards Zabuza's feet to possibly trip him up and then strike, but it wasn't good enough. With a powerful kick, Naruto was sent crashing back towards us. As the dust settled, I could see Naruto groaning in pain from the hit he had taken. Seeing him like this made me so angry at myself for not being able to help him, but I also was so worried about him when he had pulled his stupid stunt.

"What the hell were you thinking?! Sasuke and I couldn't take him on our own either! It just proves that we need to work together! How could you recklessly just—"

I stopped when I saw Naruto struggling to get up once more. It was his hand that had made me stopped me from worriedly scolding him. I was now looking at my best friend in confused amazement. In the same hand he had made an oath upon, was his Hidden Leaf headband.

Rising to his feet, Naruto suddenly had a completely different attitude from before. "Hey, you, the freak with no eyebrows… Put this in your Bingo Book: the ninja that will become Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves…"

Standing up straight now, with the confidence I always knew Naruto had deep within him, Naruto took his headband and started to tie it up in its proper place on his forehead.

"He never backs down! His name's Naruto Uzumaki!"

 _Damn, Naruto…_

"Alright, Sasuke, listen up. Can you hear me?"

I could practically hear the internal scoff in Sasuke's mind. "Yeah, I hear you."

"I've got a plan."

As Sasuke deliberated for a few seconds, I couldn't help but feel like Naruto was finally growing up and starting to think about using teamwork with someone other than me. But now he's leaving me out of the picture?

I made a pledge too.

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 **Flashback…**

"Upon this wound, I make this pledge, ya'know… I will never back down again and let someone else rescue me. I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke or Akina. I will never run away."

Blood began to drip down from his hand to the ground. I grew concerned again, but I began to understand what Naruto was doing, and I knew that I shouldn't stop him.

I was so in awe of Naruto right now.

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 _This unbelievable knucklehead just popped into my life one day…_

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"You mean you've never had ramen!? What's wrong with you? Ramen is the food of the gods! You can't just not try it!"

"Okay, okay. I'll try it! But it better be good, Naruto, or else," I threatened him playfully.

Naruto was not able to wait patiently. "And?"

"This is the food of the gods."

I quickly clamped my hands over my ears as he hooped and hollered in victory. He even ran to the street and back in his excitement, to the dismay of some passersby.

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 _He helped me become more confident in myself and, because of this, I was able to make more friends…_

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"Sure, Sasu-chan. We can be friends," I grinned evilly.

Sasuke groaned at the nickname. "I'm going to regret this, aren't I?"

"Maybe," I chuckled in response.

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"That's what happens on a mission," Kakashi said with a gentler tone. "The enemy takes a hostage, and you've got an impossible choice. And someone ends up dead. On every mission, your life is on the line."

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"You pass…"

We all were in shock. What just happened?

"In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. That's true, but… those who abandon their friends… are worse than scum."

I could hardly believe my ears. We had passed, and Kakashi just said the most inspirational thing I had ever heard in all of my life in this new world. I just might have to start calling him Kakashi-sensei…

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 _I was able to become the ninja I always wanted to be. The one who protects others, and the person who is needed by someone._

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As Kakashi-sensei proceeded to tie up our enemies, I stepped beside Sasuke. He glanced my way and looked away with what I thought was a slight pout on his face.

Giggling to myself internally, I asked him a question. "Was the strong, silent, emo-boy Sasuke worried about little ol' me?"

"Hn," he still refused to look at me. Chuckling out loud this time, I looked over to where sensei was almost done with tying the ropes.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Sasuke still looked away from me, but he hesitated. After a moment, he looked back in front, still looking away from me, and nodded his head slightly. I smiled a little at him, no longer smug. Seeing the vulnerable side to Sasuke was something that let me know that he cared for me. And, despite what some of the fangirls may think, Sasuke and I were not together. We were the brother and sister duo that looked out for each other.

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 _And because of him, I can't back down either! I refuse to be left behind!_

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"You know what my dream is, don't you?"

Naruto looked back at me confused for a second before his eyes widened in sudden understanding. He had a tiny smile that was starting to show on his face now.

"'My dream for the future is to be the greatest kunoichi I can be so that I can protect my precious people,' do you remember that?" I asked him. "Because that includes knuckleheaded best friends like you. You will never have to prove yourself to me. I know what a great Hokage you are going to be, and I can't wait for everyone else to see what I see in you already. I've always believed in you, and I need you here with me too. Without you, I wouldn't have any friends. You were my first friend, so it's only natural that I want to protect you."

"Akina…"

"So I make my own pledge. I will never let my friends suffer or die as long as there is breath left in me. I will never betray my friends' trust in me, and I will not back down from my promises. This is my new path, one I will walk with my friends, ya'know."

 **End Flashback**

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 _I'll show them both just how much we need each other. I will not be useless weight!_

Forming my hands into the proper hand signs, I molded my chakra in a very familiar way to perform my jutsu. I slammed my palm to the ground, creating a formula to bring a friend here to help out. "Summoning Jutsu!"

My exclamation had surprised everyone in the clearing as a puff of smoke appeared in front of my body. When it cleared, it revealed a creature which hadn't been seen by ninja in over 12 years.

A dragon.

Granted, it was a small one. But she was still a dragon.

Her name is Hisa, and just like her name means, she is an enduring dragon with the ability to create unbreakable shields. Quickly, she flew over to Tazuna's side, and wrapped around his neck loosely. He didn't seem to appreciate this at first, but when Hisa expelled her shield from her form so that it encased Tazuna in a protective barrier that no one but someone from the Morimoto clan could break, he calmed down.

"Don't you think…" I began, gaining my teammates' attention. "That you can leave me out of this. I am still a part of Team 7, and we work together!"

Naruto and Sasuke looked at me with surprise, but then Naruto smirked, wiping the blood from his face. "Alright! Now, guys, let's go wild!"

I smirked myself, knowing that Naruto was now including me in his plans too. We could do this, we could rescue Kakashi-sensei, together.

Sasuke and I both nodded at Naruto, prepared to take on this rogue Jonin. I didn't know how this battle was going to end, but I didn't care right now. I was so proud of Team 7.

We were ready to face anything. As long as we were together.

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 **Author's Note**

Thanks again to all of those who have favorited and followed this story! I hope you enjoy this big chapter. I also ask that you leave a review down below (they seriously are a big help, and they help inspire me too!). Let's see if we can get 3 or more reviews just for this chapter ;)

Also, I am on spring break right now (I know, it's really early for spring break...). Since it is spring break, I do plan on using some of this time to write, so I'm hoping to be able to post again this week. Be on the lookout for that.

Again, thanks for everything, guys! :3 You all are amazing!


	10. Operation: Save Kakashi-sensei!

**Chapter 9 - Operation: Save Kakashi-sensei!**

Staring down an opponent who vastly outranked any of us Genin? We probably looked like the biggest idiots of the century. Standing together, using teamwork to overpower a larger opponent, and using our strength in numbers? We had to be considered totally badass.

Zabuza seemed like he already knew the outcome of this battle as he stared us down both as his Water Clone version who was prepared to face us, and as his original form who was keeping our sensei trapped in his Water Prison Jutsu. I knew of a plan that could work against this type of situation, but I wanted Naruto to figure it out. It was a variation of something we had already done before, and it would work. However, this was Naruto's moment to shine, and I would let him do just that, if only to prove that he has what it takes to be a great ninja.

"Ok," Naruto signaled that he had a plan. "Ready? Let's bring this guy down."

At this, Zabuza began to laugh in a very sinister manner. "Big words for such a little man. You think your plan's going to keep you in the game?"

I know that he was simply trying to put us on edge and make us doubt ourselves, but I couldn't help but feel a little terrified of our ordeal. I didn't care though. Looking to the two boys beside me, I felt that this was where I needed to be. More importantly, this is where I wanted to be, right by their sides, in the heat of battle, protecting their backs just like they will protect mine.

"What are you doing?! I told you to run! The fight was over the moment I got caught. Now, take off!" Kakashi-sensei yelled at us from his prison. "Your mission is not to prove how brave you are. It's to save the bridge builder. Stay on mission!"

Naruto looked behind him. "Bridge builder?"

Tazuna looked down for a moment, as if debating for a brief moment. Hisa was still around his neck, protecting him. I know that he didn't know how strong her shield was, but I hope that he had some faith in our abilities. "Well I – I guess this all happened because of me… Because of my desire to live… But I won't let that stand in your way now." Now, Tazuna raised his head and had the most courageous expression I had seen from him yet. But there was determination there as well. "Forget about me, and do what you have to do! Go ahead and fight to save your sensei!"

I couldn't help the smirk that made its way onto my face. From the small scoff I heard to my left, I guess Sasuke could hold it in either.

"Alright. You hear that?" Sasuke smirked.

Naruto's grin got even wider. "Yeah, ya'know. You ready?"

I silently nod in answer. I was ready to take this guy down and save Kakashi-sensei.

But he just had to laugh again. And this time, it was an even more menacing laugh than last time, but just as chilling.

"You really haven't learned anything, have you?" Zabuza seemed to pity our naïveté. "Still playing your little game – pretending to be ninja. When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents."

Everyone except Hisa and I gasped. I looked over to Hisa. She was a small dragon, whose turquoise and golden scales shined even in this thick fog. She was not the typical dragon that I remember vaguely from the other world. She didn't have wings, and she looked much more similar to the dragons depicted in many Asian style artworks. Her red eyes were conveying their determination to help me, but they also held worry, knowing what this man Zabuza was capable of.

"Zabuza," both Kakashi-sensei and I remarked. "The demon…"

As the original made a comment to Kakashi-sensei about how he must have been in his Bingo Book as well, the clone version of Zabuza heard me and seemed surprised. "So the dragons mentioned me after all…"

Sure, the dragons did tell me about The Demon, but that wasn't all. My Mother, Tsubasa Morimoto, also mentioned the horrors of her childhood when I was a baby… This was something she always regretted having to do, and she apologized for her actions constantly.

Kakashi-sensei turned to us and began explaining. "Long ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, also known as Blood Mist Village, before a student could become a ninja, there was one final test."

"Do you know about the graduation exam?"

"What graduation exam?" Naruto questioned.

Zabuza laughed some more. I was really starting to hate the sound of his laugh, squashing down my fear.

"What's the big deal anyway? We had graduation tests too." _Poor naïve Naruto…_

Laughing again, Zabuza looked up at us all with what I could imagine to be an evil smirk on his bandaged face. "Did you have to kill the other students to pass?"

Naruto and Sasuke looked so horrified at the idea. I could hardly look at them as well. This was my clan's country of origin. My clan was soaked in blood. Even Mother…

"Imagine young ninja like you and the Morimoto clan – eating together, training together – and then comes the final exam. Only they changed the rules: kill or be killed. You can't stop while your opponent still breathes. He was your friend, shared your dreams. Now, it's him or you."

"Stop talking…" I muttered.

But Kakashi-sensei didn't hear my plea. "Ten years ago, in the Village Hidden in the Mist, the graduation exam changed. One year before, a dark evil had filled the school with terror."

No one spoke, but I knew that in a sick way, everyone who didn't already know the story was interested in what happened. I could see Naruto visibly gulp.

"Without pause or hesitation, a young boy who was not even a ninja approached he class and took down over 100 other students," Kakashi-sensei finished.

Silence echoed in the clearing. It was so silent, that Zabuza's muttered words, which shouldn't have been heard, were as loud a bellowing siren. "It – it felt so – good!"

All of us on Team 7 flinched as he looked straight at us in murderous glee when he finished speaking. Naruto instinctively brought up his arm to defend himself from this demon. But it wasn't Naruto who should have brought up his guard.

It was Sasuke.

Sasuke was suddenly elbowed in the stomach from a speeding Zabuza and thrown into the air away from the rest of us. Naruto gasped in surprise and worry for his fellow teammate, and I called out Sasuke's name in horror. When Sasuke finally settled in the dirt, Zabuza had sped over to him again and drove his elbow once more into Sasuke's abdomen. This resulted in Sasuke spewing blood from his mouth, telling me that there were now some internal injuries.

"Sasuke!" I yelled in concern.

Standing up straight now, Zabuza slammed his foot down on the writhing Genin's stomach, seeming to enjoy the groans of pain that were coming from my teammate. Reaching behind his shoulder, Zabuza began to grip his large sword as if preparing for the final blow.

I grew angrier by the second as Zabuza deliberated with inflicting injury on the boy I saw as my brother. I could hear his cries of pain and I just felt the unbearably strong urge to charge at Zabuza.

"You're nothing," the Demon chuckled.

 _Time to go to work for a living!_

"Stop right there!" Naruto exclaimed. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

All around Zabuza appeared many copies of Naruto, making Zabuza pause for a moment as he studied his situation. Deciding not to be outdone, I created some Water Clones as well, mixing them among all of Naruto's clones. Granted, my clones couldn't take as much of a beating like Naruto's Shadow Clones, but with my own vast chakra stores thanks to my clan, I was able to create just as many clones as Naruto. Together, we created quite the intimidating army for any other opponent, but Zabuza wasn't an ordinary opponent.

Naruto and I shared a quick glance at each other, and I nodded to our silent exchange. All of us took out kunai knives and prepared to face the rogue ninja before us.

"Here we go!" all of us clones said together.

We all leapt towards Zabuza with our kunai positioned to deal some damage to Zabuza. All of us were compacted around him to the point where we created a dome around the form of our opponent, leaving Sasuke in the clear. As the original, I had stayed behind and flashed Sasuke to a further distance from where the Clone Dome was.

Once Sasuke understood what had happened, he turned around to give me a thankful glance, but he paused for a moment and gave me a questioning expression. I simply winked at confused boy and waited until Zabuza retaliated against all of the clones of Naruto and I. All of us went flying away from the enemy and were skidding along the ground. My Water Clones exploded back into water almost immediately. I could see one of the many Narutos rummaging inside of his pack, looking for something in particular. He had a look on his face which clearly told anyone who knew him well that he wasn't about ready to give up.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as he threw a foreign object to his teammate. I helped Sasuke get up quickly so that he could catch what had been thrown his way. As soon as Sasuke grabbed the object, he smirked and rotated himself around and brandish what Naruto had given to him.

Sasuke unfurled the weapon that had been given to him. This weapon now had four blades with a circular handle on the inside of the blade, revealing it to be an oversized shuriken, also known as a throwing star. "Demon Wind Shuriken, Windmill of Shadows!"

Zabuza didn't seem too impressed with this display though. "A shuriken? You'll never touch me with that."

Not deterred by Zabuza's words, Sasuke leapt up into the air, displaying a certain grace that we normally didn't see from him. Turning himself around in the air to create more momentum, Sasuke wound up the shuriken and threw it at Zabuza with all of his might.

The clone of Zabuza waited for the shuriken to make its move, but he was surprised when the weapon bypassed him all together and went straight for the original body. As, Zabuza was concerned with this, I executed a few hand signs as well and then went over to where Tazuna and Hisa were situated inside of her barrier, preparing for anything to come our way.

"So, you pass the clone and aim for my real body. Smart," Zabuza seemed to be impressed a little bit by us now.

"But not smart enough," he easily caught the shuriken with his left hand. I had to smirk at our opponent underestimating us Team 7.

As if sensing that this wasn't finished, Zabuza paused and looked up to see another shuriken coming his way. It was a shuriken that had hidden itself inside of the shadow of the first shuriken that Sasuke had thrown. This was known as the Shadow Shuriken Jutsu, which in my opinion was aptly named. My smirk grew wider. He didn't have any more hands to use to block this one.

To everyone's amazement, Zabuza was quick enough to leap over the second shuriken. He was smirking underneath the bandages as he exclaimed, "I told you a shuriken can't touch me!"

I could feel Tazuna stiffen behind me, but Sasuke and I just smirked at this.

 **POOF!**

Naruto suddenly burst forth from a cloud of smoke right where the shuriken had just been flying through the air. Gasps of amazement could be heard from Tazuna, Hisa, and Kakashi-sensei as they witnessed the genius of Naruto as he prepared a kunai knife in his hand. Now Zabuza looked behind him as well when he heard the poof. His eyes widened in surprise as he laid eyes on the Genin that he was so sure had been over by Sasuke.

Throwing his kunai with all of his might, Naruto exclaimed, "EAT THIS!"

Quick as lightning, Zabuza dodged the attack by letting go of the Water Prison Jutsu, his hand coming out of the water completely. As the rogue ninja turned towards Naruto, I could see a faint line of blood along his cheek from where the kunai had grazed him, and I also saw a crazed look in his eyes.

Everyone gasped at seeing Zabuza dodge everything that was thrown at him. In his rage, our enemy was now preparing to throw Sasuke's shuriken that he had in his hand at Naruto now, and being in midair, he couldn't dodge this.

"I'LL DESTROY YOU!" Zabuza roared.

I would be more worried if I wasn't in on a little secret…

 **POOF!**

From Zabuza's left hand, another cloud of smoke appeared. I emerged from the smoke holding onto the ninja's arm. Using the momentum that Zabuza had so graciously shared, I rotated myself counter-clockwise and brought out my leg towards his face.

Clocking him in the jaw with my enhanced strength, I smirked at my accomplishment, or rather, the accomplishment of all of us on Team 7. "CHECKMATE, IDIOT!"

Off balance now, there was nothing in Zabuza's hand to harm Naruto, but now I was too close to the crazed ninja. Just as I thought he was going to perform some acrobatic maneuver to attack me, an arm went around my form and held onto Zabuza's wrist. I fell to the ground at the feet of the person who had helped me out at a critical time.

 _Kakashi-sensei!_

I had to smile at seeing him free from his imprisonment. His Sharingan was fully emblazoned with determination overflowing from him. I heard Zabuza gasp from surprise once again. He really needs to stop underestimating people.

Another gasp, this time for air, came from over by the river. "Is Akina okay!?"

 _Aww_ , I thought. _Naruto's worried about me._

Flashing over to a safer distance from Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza, I went over to Sasuke who greeted me with a grin and then looked over to the other Akina who was situated by Tazuna and Hisa. The ironic thing about Water Clones is that while the element of water usually represents something that isn't limited and free flowing, the clones aren't so unlimited. Not only are they restrained from going too far away from the host body, they also have to share the same consciousness as the host body. In simpler terms, it's like having a one person puppet show. The more puppets you have, the harder it is to control all of them with perfect accuracy so that they operate with you instead of flopping around uselessly.

"She's fine, Naruto," Sasuke replied for me to the worried blond who was taking a swim. I could see a responding grin from the knucklehead who was more worried about me than I was.

"Naruto, that was an excellent plan," our sensei called out. "You've really grown, haven't you?"

A little snicker erupted from Naruto as he began to explain our plan. "I knew I couldn't beat him with my Shadow Clones. That was just to distract him. And Akina added in her Water Clones to distract him from her as well. While he fought the clones, I turned into a Demon Wind Shuriken, and Akina got Sasuke out of there. She then switched with one of her clones who had stayed clear and stuffed her transformed shuriken self into Sasuke's bag as well. He didn't know what to do, ya'know!"

I smirked at Naruto's way of explaining things. He was so proud of himself, but I knew that he appreciated all of the help we gave as well. But it was his idea to use an altered version of our strategy from the bell test in this situation.

"I used one of the clones to transform into the shuriken. When I threw it to Sasuke, it looked like a real shuriken. Sasuke could tell it was me in a second, and put everything together from when Akina had given him a shuriken as well, but it was actually the real Akina while everyone else saw a Water Clone in her place. Sasuke spun around so no one could see and pulled out Akina who was now a shuriken. Now there were two shuriken. One was Akina. One was me.

"I hid in the shadow of the Akina shuriken, and our target was the real Zabuza. Of course, I knew that I couldn't fight Zabuza myself. That wasn't in the game plan. I wanted to get in there and break up his Water Prison. Akina was the one who came up with the idea to use herself as well so that she could try to use her enhanced Morimoto strength to knock out Zabuza, or at least knock him away from the Water Prison if the first plan didn't work. We didn't know his clone would be wrecked too. That was a bonus, ya'know!"

"Hn," Sasuke scoffed from beside me. "Don't brag. You just lucked out. Akina was the one who originally created this plan in the bell test, you just tweaked it."

"Why thank you for the high praise," I sarcastically thanked him in a snooty accent.

Tazuna wasn't amused though. "The whole thing was just a fluke!"

It really wasn't a fluke. Taking someone's original idea and constructing it to fulfill the needs of your current situation without conveying these changes with spoken words showed just how ingenious this whole plan truly was. And it shows just how far we have come together as a team since we first were brought into Team 7.

It pisses me off a little that all of us can have such flawless teamwork, and yet the two of them act like they hate each other. I know that they would be the best of friends if they just got over their need to be better than the other.

Hearing a scoff from near the river, I turned to see Zabuza not looking very pleased with this situation. "I got distracted and lost my grip on the Water Prison."

"Don't flatter yourself," Kakashi-sensei replied to the smug ninja. "You weren't distracted. You were forced to let go."

"Hn."

 _Don't go copying Sasuke now._

"Your technique worked on me once. But it won't work again. So what's it going to be?"

Cue the stare down between two highly skilled ninja. It was almost like watching a shootout in an Old Western film. I half expected the two of them to pull out their pistols any second now, and shoot the other down.

"Akina."

The simple hint from Sasuke made me remember that we need to be protecting the bridge builder. I know that Sasuke hadn't met Hisa yet, but I still puffed out my cheeks a little at the insult to me for leaving Tazuna in her care. I nodded to Hisa as I grabbed a hold of Sasuke's shoulder. Once I had done this, Hisa extended her barrier to just beyond where Sasuke and I were standing. However, this doesn't mean that we were pushed away. Because I was holding onto Sasuke, he wasn't affected by the change in the barrier, and being from the Morimoto clan, I was able to pass through Hisa's shields easily.

"Milady."

I turned to Hisa who still remained around Tazuna's neck. The other two were startled. It made sense when this was the first time that Hisa had spoken since being summoned.

"Lord Ryuujin and Lady Sora will be happy to know that you have grown to the point of being able to take on the Demon Zabuza Momochi."

I suppressed the need to sweat drop. While I really liked having Hisa around, she was always so formal with me and made me seem so much larger in life than I actually was. I looked back up at her before I replied back.

"Just please don't forget to mention that it was a team effort. Sasuke and Naruto helped out a lot too."

"But Milady was the one who came up with the plan first, and without you, they would have been killed since the plan would not have been executed properly without you present."

I groaned this time. "Hisa, you sort of missed the point. It was a plan that involved the entire team, and it worked. We got Kakashi-sensei out of the Water Prison."

Hisa seemed to be looking off into the distance, as if she didn't hear me. _This dragon thinks way too highly of me…_

"What's with all of the 'milady' stuff?" Sasuke asked.

Suddenly, Hisa turned back to Sasuke and hopped off of Tazuna's shoulder. She then grew in size to the point where she was as tall as an elephant. Lightning was erupting from her mouth as she looked down at Sasuke with malice. _Oh, boy._

"DO YOU THINK THAT MILADY AKINA IS NOT **WORTHY** OF HER TITLE? IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK, **PUNY MORTAL**?!"

Lightning almost hit Sasuke as he took a step back from Hisa as she began to open her mouth, showing that she was about to unleash a large lightning attack on anyone who disrespected me at all. Sasuke seemed to sweat drop as he replied.

"Nope, no disrespect here. Milady and I are good friends. She just didn't mention that she had such a title…"

It took a moment for this information to sink in, but once it did, Hisa shrunk back to her previous size with a large smirk on her face. "That's what I thought!"

Face palming myself, I knew that I was never going to live this down from Sasuke later.

Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I could see Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei finally leaping away from each other to start their showdown. They both landed a good distance away on top of the water and began making hand signs. There were so many that they were both performing in perfect sync. It had to be because of Kakashi-sensei's Sharingan that he was able to simultaneously copy Zabuza's moves.

Once they had both done the last hand sign, they both called out their jutsu which happened to be the familiar Water Dragon Jutsu. With this completed, two swirling masses of water between them began to move in opposite directions until they began forming something. They were forming into two dragons which then proceeded to battle the other. Both dragons collided with each other, expelling large amounts of water from the river in every direction.

A large wave made its way over to us, and both Sasuke and Tazuna prepared themselves for the onslaught of water that never came. The barrier that Hisa created kept out all of the water, but it still looked funny to have water surrounding us up to my head at times and not be swept away by it.

Just as the waves cleared out, we could see that both Water Dragons were evenly matched with each other to the point where they were starting to collapse on each other. In the middle of the collapsing water, I could make out a battle of strength going on between Kakashi-sensei with a kunai and Zabuza who brandished his large assassin sword.

With grunts from the two of them after a long moment trying to outmatch the other in strength, both elite ninja leapt away from each other once more. I grew confused at what happened next though as Zabuza began running around in a circular motion from our sensei, but Sensei seemed to copy it exactly. It made it look like a 3-D mirror match. Now Zabuza stopped and raised his hands in the same way he had when he performed the Hidden Mist Jutsu at the beginning of this encounter, and again, Kakashi-sensei was copying every move as it happened with no delays in between.

"He's not just following," Tazuna announced. "He moves the same way at the same time."

Suddenly, I heard Kakashi-sensei say something that sounded like the end of a sentence, as if the two of them were having a silent conversation. Or, more likely, Kakashi-sensei was psyching out Zabuza by making him think that he can read minds. So it might just be lucky guesses.

"Ha!" Zabuza scoffed. "All you're doing is copying me like a monkey."

Then suddenly, they were talking together at the same time. "You can't beat me with cheap tricks. I'll crush you!"

Zabuza was getting furious now. "When I finish with you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again."

But then he just stopped. He was staring at Kakashi-sensei with an expression I can only describe as horrified, confused, and incredulous all rolled into one. He could seem to believe whatever it was that he thought was there beside our sensei.

It seemed that Zabuza was taking too long for Kakashi-sensei's tastes though since he finished out the rest of the hand signs for the jutsu and declared that it was a water style jutsu by the name of Giant Vortex. In front of Kakashi-sensei, the water suddenly shot from the river and created a spiral before him as it closed up, obscuring Zabuza's view of his opponent as it shot towards him.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Zabuza cried.

With that, the enemy was swept up in the strong current created by the Giant Vortex Jutsu, and more water comes at us from the river once more. Remembering that Naruto was in the river still, I grew worried for him.

"Naruto! Find something to grab onto!" I hollered, hoping that he would hear me over the roar of the water.

As the water cleared out from the jutsu, I could see that Naruto had grabbed onto a small, study tree at the river's edge on our side of it. I grinned knowing that he was okay now instead of potentially drowning.

Once the Kakashi-sensei's water circled back and cleared from our area, I focused my gaze on an area over by a large tree on the other side of the clearing where I could feel Zabuza's chakra coming from. Now that he was exhausted, there was nowhere for him to hide from my Sensor capabilities within this large clearing. He was bracing himself against the tree and looked like he didn't have much energy left in him to fight with. That was when Kakashi-sensei threw multiple kunai towards his enemy. Too drained to even notice the danger, Zabuza was unable to dodge any of the kunai directed his way. He hollered in pain as his mind and body registered the pain he was now in.

"You're finished," Kakashi-sensei announced.

By now, all of the water our sensei had used in his jutsu was receding back into the river where it belonged which left the remaining area free for us from Team 7 to make our way over to see what was happening from a safe distance. I made my way over to Naruto before Hisa even had time to let down the barrier and helped him to his feet. Naruto gave an appreciative grin and we both joined Sasuke beside Tazuna and Hisa as we stood, waiting for Kakashi-sensei to finish this fight.

"How?" Zabuza questioned. "Can you see into the future?"

There was no way that this was likely, but Kakashi-sensei continued the ruse that I was sure he was pulling when he answered Zabuza's question. "Yes. This is your last battle ever."

I was suddenly startled by the presence of another chakra signature when I saw two senbon, also called throwing needles, make their way through the air to Zabuza. With incredible accuracy, they hit two major points in his neck, causing the ninja to grunt before I could no longer feel his chakra at work. With a sinking feeling, I realized that this meant he must now be dead…

Everyone gasped at this turn of events, even Kakashi-sensei was surprised at this. We all turned to look into a tree that was off to the side of the clearing. This guy had to be fast if I was only able to sense him just as he attacked our enemy. At least, I assumed he was a guy, but his hairstyle of a covered bun at the back of his head with long bangs which reached to halfway down his torso framing his face, it made determining his gender a little harder than normal. By his stature though, I had to assume this was a young man.

Anyway, this person wore a short-sleeved, green haori jacket with white trim over what looked like dark tan pinstriped hakama pants which ended just after his knees. Underneath his haori, he also wore a matching dark tan long-sleeved shirt which also happened to be pinstriped. With a brown belt and a mask with red swirling designs indicating he was an ANBU, this stranger seemed very relaxed now that Zabuza was down.

"You were right," the ANBU chuckled with an innocent voice. "It was his last battle."

I could feel Naruto right next to me as he tensed up and was almost growling with frustration at what had just happened. However, I didn't pay a lot of attention to this right away since I could now see Kakashi-sensei jumping down from the tree he was in to Zabuza's body. He quickly checked the ninja's pulse at his neck. When Sensei was sure that there were no vital signs, he turned his gaze over to the stranger.

The guy bowed his head to Kakashi-sensei. "Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for this chance to finally take him down."

"By your mask, I see that you're a tracker ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist."

The ninja raised himself out of the boy. "Impressive. You're well informed."

It made sense. Killing Zabuza and he also was wearing a mask to show that he is ANBU… But I couldn't shake this feeling that something was off…

Naruto zoomed in front of us all as he exclaimed, "A tracker?!"

I could barely contain a small chuckle coming from me.

"Naruto, tracker ninja have a certain role that they play for their village. You were pulling a prank on the old man during this lesson, so it makes sense that you don't remember any of what we learned about tracker ninja."

Giving me a sheepish grin, Naruto paid attention as I quickly explained things to him. "When a ninja breaks away from their home village and become rogue, they take with them all kinds of secrets, secrets about his people. Trackers are specifically trained to hunt down these ninja and eliminate them. This is so that the secrets of the village remain secrets from other nations."

With a nod of understanding, Naruto was caught back up with what he needed to know right at this moment.

"That's correct. I'm a member of the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was my duty to stop Zabuza."

Again, I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong, but I also began to think that this guy was much younger than I was originally picturing him to be. Sure, he was short, but his voice held a certain youth to it as well. He might not be much older than we are now, and yet he is an elite ninja taking down rogues from his nation… This kid must be incredibly strong!

Before I could protest against it, Naruto went running towards the tree that the stranger was situated in. Stopping just before he was right under it, Naruto glared at the tracker ninja before him and then glanced back at Zabuza's body next to Kakashi-sensei. Looking back to the person on the tree branch, Naruto growled in frustration. I could tell that he could not believe what he had just seen as he took another look at the fallen ninja.

"What is this? Who do you think you are?!" Naruto cried as he pointed an accusing finger at the ninja in the tree.

Nothing was said as the boy continued to look down at Naruto from his perch.

"Did you hear me?" Naruto growled once more.

Kakashi-sensei moved to calm down the blond Genin. "Easy, Naruto. He's not our enemy."

"That's not the point! Did you see what he did, just like that?" He by now had turned around to try and explain to our sensei what he was talking about.

"Zabuza was huge and powerful, like some kind of monster. And this kid, who's no bigger than me, he brought down Zabuza with one move like it was nothing. I mean, what does that make us? We're just fumbling around. We don't know anything. How can I accept that?!"

"Well," Kakashi interrupted Naruto's tirade, "even if you don't accept it, still… it did happen, Naruto."

Not knowing how to respond to this, Naruto looked up at our sensei and growled in frustration at the situation as Kakashi-sensei placed a hand on his head in comfort. "In this world, there are kids who are younger than you and yet stronger than me."

I knew that this wouldn't please either Naruto or Sasuke who both looked away at this statement from Sensei. I understood their frustration though, because I felt it too. It made me want to get stronger so that I could face these types of opponents and help out my precious people.

My thoughts were interrupted when the tracker disappeared from the tree in a gust of wind and then reappeared by Zabuza's body. He went to pick up Zabuza's body and it almost looked funny to see the size difference between the two of them, or at least it would have if this were any other situation. Now that he had a proper hold on the body of the rogue ninja, the boy looked up to the rest of us as he brought his hand up in a hand sign.

"Your struggle is over for now. I must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body. They must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me. Farewell."

With that, wind danced around the boy once again and then they were gone.

"He disappeared!"

Storming over to where the boy had just disappeared from, Naruto looked around frantically for any sign of where he had gone. There would be no trace though. I couldn't even sense the boy in the area anymore as I stretched my field of perception farther than the clearing. But Naruto didn't give up.

"Let it go," Kakashi-sensei advised.

Growling in anger, Naruto lowered himself to the ground. Balling his hands into fists, he started to pound the earth beneath him in rage and frustration as he roared to himself more than to the rest of us in the clearing. "What are we doing here? We're nothing! I can't believe it!"

More and more times, Naruto punched the ground. I wanted to go over to him and tell him to stop hurting himself. But I knew that I couldn't. This was something that I knew Naruto had to face himself, a struggle that he had to overcome in his own way, without my interference. This was one of those times when I felt so helpless because I was so useless in this situation, and many other situations to come with this type of life.

After watching this continue for a few moments, Kakashi-sensei went towards Naruto and grabbed his wrist before another punch could be thrown to the ground. "As ninja, the things we encounter are never easy. Save your anger for the next enemy."

While Naruto stopped, I think we all felt that this was a tough pill to swallow. We were just starting our ninja journey, and yet there were people who completely outclassed us. It was frustrating beyond belief.

"We haven't completed our mission yet," Kakashi-sensei remarked. "We still have to get the bridge builder to his bridge."

The subject now changed, we all let out a bit of our tension and Tazuna even laughed in response to Sensei's reminder. "Sorry I caused all this trouble for you. But you can rest at my house when we get to the village."

"Alright, let's get a move on."

And with that, we began to make our way to Tazuna's village so that he could help finish the bridge that would transform a nation. Before we could get far though, Kakashi-sensei froze in his tracks. I could see him shaking and then suddenly, he was falling.

Every one of us gasped at seeing Kakashi-sensei collapsing very suddenly. All of us rushed to our sensei's side as we tried to figure out what happened. I immediately fell to the ground to check on him and tried to shake him awake. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't wake him up.

"Kakashi-sensei!" we all yelled, wondering what was going on.

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 **Author's Note**

Hey again! Thanks to the people that have been Followed and Favorited my story or even me. I also want to thank the people who reviewed last chapter. You guys are amazing!

Please leave a review below, it really helps motivate me to write more... :3

I'm going to challenge you guys to do 3 reviews for this chapter as well, and those that do are going to get a shout out in the next chapter. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

Also, did anyone catch the Avengers reference that I put in?


	11. Past Connections

**Author's Note**

I just wanted to say that I am sorry for the extremely late post. A lot of things have been going on in my life right now that have left me unmotivated for writing. My great-grandma fell and broke her hip and fractured her knees, my Uncle died, and another person that I know committed suicide. All within the span of the last couple of months. So, needless to say, my time away hasn't been easy. I will try to be more regular with my posts now that the summer is here. Thank you all for understanding. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

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 **Chapter 10**

 _I'm so scared…_

 _Someone…_

 _Please help me…_

 _I shivered in my hiding spot. I had to control my breathing, but I was so frightened. There were people here! I could still hear the screams outside the borders of my hiding spot. I could hear the clang of metal on metal, and I could also hear the roars of my family and friends as they were in pain._

 _I just wanted it all to stop!_

 _PLEASE STOP!_

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I woke up with a startled gasp as I sat up straight. I looked around to see that everyone was still asleep. Naruto and Sasuke were still in their beds, and I could see the beginnings of dawn's light start to peek through the window at the far wall of the room.

Sighing to myself, I suppressed my fear from my dream and quietly got up to start the new day a little earlier than normal. It was now the second day that we had been here. Yesterday, I had done all I could to heal Kakashi-sensei's wounds and ground up medicines that my family would often use to help recover chakra faster. I couldn't force Kakashi-sensei to drink it, so I had dried the ingredients and was waiting for him to wake so that I could brew it into a tea.

Today, I figured that he would wake up, and so I started down towards the kitchen to start breakfast and boil some hot water for tea. I had helped Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, with all of the cooking yesterday and had her permission to help her from now on as well.

I had to smile at myself, remembering how in control Tsunami had been when we showed up on her doorstep yesterday before lunch, carrying our unconscious sensei and Tazuna looking worried for him as well. She had immediately known that we were the ninja her father had hired and she ordered for us to get comfortable after our sensei was lying down in a room upstairs.

I was just getting done when Tsunami came down the stairs to start the morning. She smiled when she saw that I was already making breakfast. "You didn't have to cook, Akina. You should be resting as well after your fight from yesterday. I can finish up everything."

Smirking under her mother-hen-like behavior, I looked to her as I replied. "I'm already done with the cooking, but there are some dishes that I haven't cleaned yet. I was going to get everyone else up and see how Kakashi sensei is doing."

Tsunami smiled at me as well. "Consider it done."

Letting her take over her kitchen once more, I went to Tazuna's room and knocked on the door to let him know that there was food ready, getting a low grumble for my efforts. I also knew that Tsunami had a son as I headed to the room across the hall from Tazuna, but I had not seen him yet. None the less, I also knocked on his door to let him know about the food. Then I proceeded to the room that had been provided for us ninja. When I opened the door, I saw that Kakashi-sensei was still asleep from chakra exhaustion while the other two boys were slumbering away as well.

Normally, I would be a little mischievous and prank the boys in some way so that they would wake up. However, with Kakashi-sensei needing his peace and quiet, I decided to let the boys have a little bit of a break. Poking both of them in their sides, they groggily looked to me as they woke up. At the smallest mention of food, Naruto was wide awake and heading straight for the kitchen to have some. Sasuke was a more calm about it, but he was none the less excited for some homemade breakfast as well. I told him to save me some food from Naruto while I have a healing session with Kakashi-sensei to which I got the standard response of "hn".

Barely ten minutes into the session with my medical ninjutsu, I heard a groaning from my patient. I glanced down from where my hands were working to see that Kakashi-sensei was now awake.

"I think I overdid it with my Sharingan," Kakashi-sensei moaned.

I gave him a smirk. "Really? I hadn't noticed. It's not like I haven't been working on you with my medical ninjutsu or anything. I thought you were just taking a long catnap."

Sensei gave a sheepish eye smile as he tried to move to sit up. He quickly realized that this was not a smart move as he gasped a little at the soreness in his body.

"It's better if you just stop moving, so lie back down. I don't want to have to heal anymore injuries that you cause from trying to get back up to speed before you need to. You'll probably be out of it for another four or five days. If I hadn't been doing some healing sessions with you, it could have been a week. As it is, I have done all that I can for now. Your body needs to heal on its own now."

"Thanks, Akina," Kakashi-sensei seemed to smile at me as he lay back down on the futon.

After that was done, I could hear the pitter-patter of feet coming towards the room and saw that everyone else was coming to check on our Sensei. I was surprised to see that Naruto was carrying a platter of food with him.

"I thought I would bring you up some food since you were helping Kakashi-sensei," Naruto grinned at me. I gave him an appreciative smile in return as I began to eat my breakfast off to the side.

"There's some for the sensei as well," Tazuna chimed in, and that's when everyone else saw that he was awake.

"Sensei is awake!"

I gave Naruto another grin. "Did you think I was going to let him snooze away the whole day?"

With a sweat drop, Naruto sheepishly smiled and scratched the back of his head which gave me my answer. But after a moment, he looked to Kakashi-sensei. "Sensei, your Sharingan is cool, ya'know? But if you're going to faint every time you use it, maybe it isn't worth it…?"

Naruto phrased it as a question, but I knew that he was just concerned for someone who showed that he cared about all of us. Naruto didn't have many people who did that for him right now and he wanted to make sure that everyone was fine. It was sweet to see Naruto be so concerned for someone, when he was normally the person that I was worried about with all of the trouble he got into even without my help.

"Sorry," Kakashi apologized.

Tazuna grunted his agreement and continued. "Well, you did take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins, so we'll be safe for a while."

I could see Naruto looking down from the corner of my eye though, looking discouraged when he mentioned, "But that other guy…"

"He's from the elite tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist. Those masks are only worn by the most elite shinobi," Kakashi-sensei answered Naruto's unsaid question.

"What do they really do?" Naruto voiced this question.

"The ANBU Black Ops," Kakashi-sensei began, "also known as the Inferno Squad, destroy all traces of a rogue ninja's corpse. The shinobi's body contains many secrets: ninjutsu, chakra, special medicines used on his body. These are the secrets of his village. If his enemies find them, his people will be in grave danger."

This reminded me too much of things that I wished I could forget. My dream from the last night replayed in my head for a second before Kakashi-sensei continued on with his explanation.

"For instance, if I were to die at the hands of an enemy," at this I felt a shiver run down my spine, "he would try to analyze my Sharingan. In the worst case, my entire jutsu could be stolen and used against our home village. It is the sacred duty of the shinobi trackers to prevent this, to keep the village secrets safe. If a ninja betrays his village, the trackers hunt him down, eliminate him, and obliterate every trace of his existence. That's their specialty."

After saying this, Kakashi-sensei seemed to stare off into the distance with a curious look in his eyes. I wondered if he was having a nagging feeling about how Zabuza died like I was. I can't help but think that something was not right with this.

Naruto's voice brought me and Kakashi-sensei back to reality. "Sensei. Hey, are you okay? Sensei!"

"Hm? Oh, yeah." Kakashi-sensei regained his composure as he went on to explain. "To finish what I was saying, tracker ninja deal with the body immediately, on the spot, so there's no room for error."

With that being said, everything clicked into place. No way!

I must have said this out loud because Kakashi-sensei seemed to nod to me and looked to Naruto and Sasuke as he asked a question. "Do you remember what that tracker did with Zabuza's body?"

Naruto thought on it for a second before saying, "We don't know what he did. That guy just vanished with it."

"Exactly," I pointed to him, glad that he was following.

Kakashi-sensei nodded as well. "He should have worked on Zabuza right there, as quickly as possible. Think of the weapons he used for the takedown. Do you remember what they were?"

Sasuke spoke for the first time. "Throwing needles." It took him a moment, but then his eyes widened as he turned to look at me and repeated my own words from before. "No way…"

"Exactly," our sensei remarked. "None of it adds up."

Tazuna must have been tired of being out of the loop, because he questioned us. "What are you all yammering about? You demolished that assassin."

I shook my head as Kakashi-sensei revealed the awful truth. "Zabuza's still alive."

As a response, Tazuna and Naruto screamed in disapproval while Tsunami gasped at this new knowledge.

"But we saw his body, ya'know" Naruto exclaimed. "You checked him! You said his heart stopped!"

"His heart did stop. But that was just a temporary state to simulate death. The weapons that tracker used are called senbon. They can pierce deeply but rarely kill unless they hit a vital organ, not in the neck. They're modified from needles used for medical treatments, like acupuncture. Trackers are trained to know every detail of the human body, causing the heart to stop temporarily while keeping the body alive is an easy matter for them."

Holding up one finger, Kakashi-sensei went on to explain how he figured this out. "First, he carried Zabuza's body away, even though it's much heavier than he is." Now he lifted up two fingers. "Second, he used senbon, which have a precise effect but are rarely fatal. From those two factors, we can conclude that the tracker wasn't trying to destroy Zabuza. He was trying to save him."

Tazuna didn't seem to want to believe it though. "Come on, you're over-thinking this, aren't you?"

"Encountering suspicion, the ninja prepares quickly. Hesitation leads to disaster. Every shinobi knows this saying," Kakashi-sensei answered.

Beside me, Naruto was shaking as if in anticipation for a match with a certain masked ninja, and I don't think it was Kakashi-sensei. A grin formed on his face as Naruto began to laugh at the opportunity to face Zabuza and the tracker again. I grinned at his enthusiasm, but I knew that I was not ready to come face to face with the Demon of the Mist again.

"What did Zabuza mean?"

The question startled me. I looked over my shoulder to see Sasuke giving me an intense stare that would normally make someone else nervous. For me, I could see the concern behind the intensity.

"What do you mean, Sasuke?"

Everyone's attention was now on the two of us. It made me feel uncomfortable. I wanted Sasuke to drop whatever it was that he was thinking of. I didn't like to be the center of attention.

"What did he mean about how there was a bounty on your head, and that your mother was a kunoichi from the Hidden Mist? We don't care where your family came from, because you are still our friend, but we want to know what he meant," Sasuke answered.

While I was impressed that this was again like listening to a speech from Sasuke given that he is usually a person of few words, I didn't really want to answer the question. It brought back painful memories. Glancing around at everyone else, I could see that I wasn't going to get away with not saying anything. I could however see an understanding expression in the one visible eye of my sensei. The Hokage must have told him something…

"How much do you know, sensei?"

"Your mother was the sensei for one of my friends, and she was married to my sensei's best friend, your father. So, I know a fair amount about your clan, but not how Zabuza knows you personally."

Sighing, I resigned myself to explaining the connection I had to Zabuza.

"The Morimoto clan was a clan which originated in the Village Hidden in the Mist. We were known for our dragon summons and the closeness we had to them. There was even a myth that we were originally dragons who decided to become humans but never lost sight of our past selves. When my Mother, Tsubasa Morimoto, was a child, her clan was being slaughtered by the very village she called home. Just after the attack happened, her parents, fearing for my Mother's life, sent her to a friend of theirs in Konoha. He name is Hiruzen Sarutobi."

Naruto looked surprised. "Old Man Hokage knew your grandparents?!"

Despite what I was about to reveal, I couldn't help but smile at Naruto. "Yeah, they were friends, despite being from different villages."

"That's so cool!"

My smile faded after a moment. I was ready to continue. "The Third Hokage helped to raise my Mother. But the point is that attack on the Morimoto clan was ordered by the Mizukage since he felt that clans with Kekkei Genkai were getting too strong to contain. So he ordered that they be wiped away from existence. Once someone had learned of the fact that there was a survivor of the Morimoto clan, the Mizukage then created a bounty for the head of the survivor, my Mother."

I smiled a little. "Mother was happy in Konoha, and her new home protected her from those who sought to collect on her bounty. In time, she made friends and found who she wanted to be with for the rest of her life, Yuuto, my Father. Having been an orphan, my Father didn't have a name to give my Mother when they married, so he took on the clan name of Morimoto. This turned out to be his downfall though when he was out on a mission. Since he carried the symbol for our clan on his back, people assumed he was the survivor and killed him. He died before I was even born."

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and knew that it was Naruto. Despite the fact that he never knew his parents at all, he was trying to give me comfort. I, at least, still had the memories of my Mother since I was a bit more aware than the average infant.

"After my Mother also died during the Kyuubi Attack, my Mother put me in the care of the wife of the Dragon King, Sora, who was her most powerful summon and one of her dear friends. I was raised with them in their own sanctuary for dragons and for the last survivor of the Morimoto clan."

Tazuna seemed like he was following, but was growing impatient. "While the back story was helpful, how is this tied to how you know Zabuza?"

"Because it was a tradition of Sora's to go and pay respects to the site of the Morimoto Massacre, and that is where I met Zabuza."

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 **Flashback…**

It was that time again.

Sora, my Mom, was saying that it was time to go pay our respects to those who died at the old site of the Morimoto clan. Many of the dragons who were going with us were those who had once been the summoning of a fallen clan member. Some of the dragons were old enough that they were retired from combat, some were a little older than Sora, and some were just a little younger than her.

Those younger dragons were ones who had been helped by my Mother after they hatched. One of the things I could remember about our house when I lived with her was how many young dragons visited. They had been orphaned by the massacre as well and Mother helped look after them.

Also accompanying Mom and I were my siblings Ichigo and Nami. While I was hoping Dad would be able to go, I knew that he couldn't leave for as long as we were going to be gone. He had important duties to uphold as the Dragon King.

"Akina," Nami tried to get my attention. I took this time to really look at my sister. Our family was one of the few who spent most of their time in a human form. While all dragons had a human form to better hide their presence in the regular world, many chose not to change into this form, or they let many dragon features show which created a hybrid-like appearance. Nami in both her dragon and human form was breathtakingly gorgeous in my eyes. She was always the one I wanted to be like. Her turquoise hair flowed like water down her back as she kept her mid back length hair in a low and loose ponytail with a few bangs framing her flawless face which held emerald jewels perfectly set above her compassionate smile.

Despite only being three years older than me, she was very mature for her age of nine years. I only hoped I could be like her one day.

"Silly Akina, did you hear what I said?" Nami laughed at me lightly.

I hear a small scoff. "You know Akina is prone to daydreaming, Nami. Why would now be any different?"

I scowl as I turn to my brother. Ichigo is the twin brother of Nami and is older than her by twelve minutes, a fact that he never lets her forget. Ichigo is a person that looks so terrifying when you first meet him, especially with his piercing yellow eyes that will search deep within your soul. He also had ebony colored hair that he ties in a high ponytail and wears his long bangs loose, but once you become his friend, he is going to always have your back in the "annoying older brother" protective way.

Don't get me wrong, he is a serious guy, who likes to poke fun at anyone and everyone. But then there are moments when you see the care that he has for someone and it makes all the times you wanted to strangle him seem like nothing just to have that guy on your side.

I tended to feel that way more often when there were snowball fights in the winter at Mount Ryuumoto. Ichigo has a wicked aim with whatever he throws, which included snowballs. But right now, he was just annoying.

"Hush, Ichigo," Nami admonished. "Today is a somber day, it is understandable that Akina would be thinking deeply on many things concerning today."

At the mention of today's meaning, I frowned and was reminded of why we were going to the distant outskirts of the Village Hidden in the Mist. This was the day, many years ago, that the Hidden Mist wiped out the Morimoto clan, leaving only my Mother to survive.

Ignoring the scoff that I heard from Ichigo at being scolded by his twin sister, I made my way to the front of the group where my Mom was. Her name is Sora and she is someone that I had come to see as my true Mom. I still remember my Mother, Tsubasa, fondly. However, it was Sora that had raised me and helped me become the young girl I am currently at six years old.

This is the person who I would always aspire to be like, even if she was a dragon. As my Mom gazed down at me with her endearing smile that makes you feel so warm inside, I couldn't help but smile back at her with all the love that I could convey.

"Little One, are you ready?" Mom beamed at me with a hint of sadness now.

I nodded seriously. I knew that this was important for my Mom to go and pay our respects to those she and the rest of the dragons had lost. We would go to a memorial that had been built by the dragons at the center of where the main household had been and perform a cleansing ceremony and send our prayers to those who had perished there.

I'm not sure that I was all for the spirituality of the ceremonies. However, there is a calming sort of feeling that comes over me when I go to this ceremony, like as if my sadness has been washed away for a little while because I know that the spirits of my kinsmen are still there with me.

As we neared a point on Mount Ryuumoto where there were many intricate seals that I didn't understand. All I knew about this place was that it was a way for a group of people to be reverse-summoned to a location without the use of scrolls or someone else's chakra at the new location. Everyone who was going with us was now in the circle and my Mom brought her hand in front of her face as though she was doing a single-handed prayer. I could feel her chakra swirl around us and flow into the seals.

With a large plume of smoke, I could no longer see the scenery of the place I called my home, instead, I saw destruction. I was in the middle of a clearing it seemed, and beyond this clearing, there were torii gates to signify the entrance. These gates were like what I had seen in many pictures from Japanese temples from my first life, and at the top were kanji for the Morimoto clan (森本).

Entering the compound, I could see many fallen buildings and stains all around the walkway we were taking. I had a feeling that I knew what these stains were, but I didn't want to think about it at the moment. All around the crumbling buildings, I could see stones marked with what appeared to be names as well. They must be markers from where people were buried, or had fallen. I didn't know which it was, but we didn't stop for each individual one. I remembered that after the ceremony, Mom always gave others the time to go have some time. I can imagine that it was so they could visit each of these grave sites.

However, the place we were marching through to perform the ceremony was further ahead in what I could now see is a large mansion. It reminded me of the old tatami-style mansions that they had in abundance in Japan many years ago from my other life. It was beautiful and surprising in how it was still standing perfectly in its majesty. I knew that no one was home, but I had the ominous feeling that there were presences still within the home.

Once we reached the center of the home, everyone remained still. Looking up, I saw a stone monument. It was an immense orb on which was the kanji for my clan, and wrapped around this orb was a mighty dragon which twisted around this name without hindering the view of the clan's name. As I focused more, I could see small inscriptions on the platform that I realized now must be the names of my kinsmen.

Mom was stepping forward again to bring a large container of sake to pour on the memorial stone when I had that foreboding feeling again. It seemed that Mom also felts something, because she paused in her procession to the memorial to look around and sniff the air. It was when her eyes widened and showed fear and worry that I was alerted to something being terribly wrong. What Mom said next, released the floodgates for chaos to reign in this once peaceful but saddening place.

"AMBUSH!"

All at once, shadows from everywhere rained down on our group. I could almost instantly hear screaming and sounds of something sinking into flesh. Many calls for help or cries of pain were heard as bodies were falling everywhere and my world was painted red. I was even almost crushed from the movement of some children a little older than me trying to flee from the wrath of our enemy, but not everyone made it past them. While the enemy was a blur, I could see children that I would play with on Mount Ryuumoto die right before my eyes. So many dragons were dying and I could hardly believe what was happening around me. I couldn't help but feel so afraid that I began shaking in fright, and my body refused to move away from the danger before me.

Something landing beside me jolted me from my mental battle to move, and I could see it was the body of an enemy. My heart sank as I finally knew who was attacking us.

The corpse was a young man who looked so ordinary, but what really drew my attention was what was on his forehead protector. I could see the symbol for the Village Hidden in the Mist, and I grew terrified. Before I had time to think further on this fear, a figure was instantly in front of me and I had a split second notice to see that something sharp was in his hands.

 _This is it_ , I thought. _This is the end of my second life._

Sounds of metal striking metal and the absence of pain alerted me to the fact that someone was protecting me. I looked up to see the visage of my brother, Ichigo, as he held the ninja at bay with his own katana blade.

"Stay away from my sister!" Ichigo growled at the enemy, fire spitting out of his mouth. Despite him being only nine years old, I could tell feel his killing intent rolling off of him to the ninja. I was suddenly grateful to have Ichigo as a brother more than ever.

Two arms wrapped themselves around me before I could think more about my newfound appreciation for Ichigo. I was about to resist when I saw a lock of turquoise hair in my periphery vision, indicating that it was my sister, Nami, who was taking me somewhere.

Before I could even thank her as we ran through the halls to avoid enemy combat, a ninja suddenly blocked our path. This ninja was wearing the standard flak jacket and he had spiked obsidian hair with his headband sitting sideways and diagonally across his head. Below this, his face was half covered in bandages, but it didn't obscure the view of his murderous earth colored eyes which zoned in on the two of us.

"Where do you think you're going?" Even his voice was gravelly and low, making me shiver with how frightening it was to my own ears. "The party has just started."

 **End Flashback**

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"Zabuza was one of the ninja who was there when the Mist had attacked us," I looked to everyone sitting around in Tazuna's home.

I turned my gaze downward, no longer able to take the looks of pity coming from some in the room. "I watched as dozens of dragons were slain: the elderly, the children and grandchildren of many dragons were also slain. I felt so useless, insignificant, and weak. I was a scared little girl who only knew how to hide behind others to protect myself. If it wasn't for the combined strengths of my brother and sister, I would have been dead long before my Mom was able to come to our rescue and help us escape from the chaos."

Closing my eyes, I could see the scene playing out again behind my eyelids. "Zabuza had only just become Jonin at this time and was not proficient in the Art of Silent Killing yet. He was terrifying even then. I remember at the end of our encounter, when Mom had arrived, that he would let the world know that there was still a price on my head."

Finishing my tale, I surveyed the room to gauge how people might treat me now that they knew about my discouraging past. The obviously troubled Tazuna and Tsunami would probably pity me for a while and try to take it easy on me. Sasuke, who had originally asked about my connection to Zabuza, looked at me with understanding and I knew that he would have my back, without babying me. Kakashi-sensei was the wild card, since I still couldn't completely read his face with only one eye visible at the moment.

And then there was Naruto.

Naruto was not even looking in my direction. He held his gaze firmly downward, and he was shaking slightly. At first, I thought he was going to look at me with the same pitying look that Tazuna and Tsunami had on their faces. I was about to tell him it was okay when he snapped his head up and surprised me with the most determined expression on his face. His cerulean eyes shone with the spirit I saw in him even from the page of a manga, but in real life, there was no comparison. He would never give up on what he had just determined he needed to do.

Holding out a pinky from his right hand and I gave him a surprised and confused expression as his eyes never strayed from my own. "Then we will just have to get stronger, and prove them all wrong!"

My eyes widened at him.

"We'll keep moving forward, never stopping, until we prove to everyone and ourselves that we will not be left behind. We are going to get stronger together so that no one ever has to die for us again. And that is a promise!"

Staring at him, I had no words.

I couldn't believe that Naruto could take my sad excuse of a past and turn it into strength, especially when I thought about how hard of a life he has had. Compared to his and Sasuke's lives, my life has been easy. But here Naruto was, trying to make me feel better and to move on from what had happened, and helping me move forward.

The two of us smiled at the same time, Naruto's being one of triumph, and mine being a smirk of amusement and amazement with my best friend. I reached forward to wrap my own right pinky with his and we shook them slightly, sealing our promise to each other and ourselves.

From my peripheral vision, I could see everyone else looking at us with their own smiles. Even Sasuke was smiling without it being a smirk. The moment couldn't be any more perfect.

However, deciding that we needed to move on, I glanced over to Kakashi-sensei. "So, Sensei, your said that a ninja needs to be prepared. How do you expect to prepare us when you won't be able to move properly for another few days at least?"

To this, our sensei chuckled. I scowled a little at his response. I didn't like that he thought his need to recover was hilarious.

"I can still train you," Kakashi-sensei reassured me.

I was unimpressed with his bravado though. "And what last minute training do you have that can help us take on the likes of Zabuza when you had trouble with him while using your Sharingan."

"Akina, why was I able to stop Zabuza? Because you all helped me. You've grown." After saying this, he looked to Naruto and called out his name, making the boy glance up to see his sensei give him a beaming eye smile. "You've grown the most."

At this, Naruto grinned at our sensei. "So you noticed, Kakashi-sensei. Now things are going to get better. We're all going to keep getting stronger, ya'know!"

"No, I don't know. And nothing's going to be good."

The unknown voice interrupted us from our current conversation. We all turned to see a little boy of around eight years old. With dark green coverall shorts and a tan shirt underneath as his ensemble wardrobe, he hid his face under a large white and blue hat. It covered his black spiky hair and cobalt eyes which shone with defiance and doubt. Whether that doubt was in himself or us as ninja, I had yet to determine.

Naruto had already had enough of this kid though. "Who are you?!" he yelled as he pointed an accusing finger at the boy.

"Inari," Tazuna exclaimed, "where have you been?"

The boy, now known to be Inari, ran to Tazuna with his arms open. "Welcome back, Grandpa."

Just as Tsunami went to scold Inari, I realized that this was her son who I had only heard about but had not seen yet. I wondered why he was so negative towards us.

"It's okay. I'm rude to them too," Tazuna tried to reassure his daughter on his grandson's behavior to us. The old man laughed at his own joke, but while he did this, Inari had a calculated expression set on his face as he regarded all of us ninja.

"Mom, don't you see? These people are going to die. Gato and his men will come back and find them and wipe them out."

 _Thanks for the vote of confidence, kid._

"What did you say, brat?!"

 _Oh, boy… Now, he got Naruto all riled up as well._

"Listen up. You know what a super ninja is? Well, that's me, only a lot better. I'm going to be Hokage. This Gato or Blato or whatever he's called is no match for a real hero like me."

That word "hero" reminded me of something. Inari smiling with someone else, but it wasn't Tazuna or Tsunami… so who was it?

"Ha!" Inari laughed at the idea. "There's no such thing as a hero. You're just full of stupid ideas."

The negativity just rolled off of this kid in waves. I really wanted to remember why Inari had become this way. From what little I do recall, he wasn't always a glass half-empty kid. I really wanted to help him smile again, but I didn't know how to at this point.

Naruto must have made a protest against the kid, because, he made to go over to Inari and probably show him a thing or two about something. However, before he could do that, I decided to grab a hold of Naruto's jacket so that he couldn't go any further.

"Settle down, he's just a kid," I remarked calmly.

"If you want to stay alive," Inari turned just before heading out the door, "you should go back to where you came from." And with that, Inari left the room saying he was going to look at the ocean and to be left alone.

 _If you wanted to be alone, you shouldn't have come in here from the beginning…_

I couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed with the kid, despite wanting to help him out a bit. No amount of wanting to help could desensitize someone from the blatant disrespect he showed everyone in the room apart from his family. I could understand that we were strangers to him, but it didn't mean that he needed to basically say we were going to die because we were too weak to take on a business tycoon.

Tazuna sighed and looked back to us. "Sorry about that."

Naruto stormed out of the room, and I knew he too was annoyed with how he was being talked to by Inari. I wanted to go take Naruto outside to calm down with some sparring, but I figured some yelling might do him some good as well. However, Inari is still a kid and might not take to that reaction as well, so I followed in the direction that Naruto went.

At the top of the stairs, I could hear crying and I spotted Naruto in front of Inari's door with a dejected face. I think Naruto could see why Inari was the way he is, and had lost his will to yell at the kid. Smiling at Naruto's understanding, I went back down the stairs to leave both Inari and Naruto to their own thoughts.

000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Alright," Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Training starts now."

Kakashi-sensei had taken all of us to a clearing in the forest that surrounded the town. At first, as his doctor, I had refused to let him come out here on his own. But Kakashi-sensei was fortunate that Tazuna had a pair of crutches lying around for him to use, otherwise we would be doing our training with him riding on someone's back. However, now that we were here, I guess that he would be fine. Looking around us though, enormous trees completely surrounded us, and beyond that was dense forests as far as the eye could see.

"First, we will begin with a review of chakra, the ninja's basic source of power. Understanding chakra is essential."

"We know that," Sasuke interrupted.

I couldn't help but sigh mentally.

"He's right," Naruto chimed in. "A long time ago we learned about…cattra."

"Chakra," Kakashi-sensei corrected.

Naruto sweat dropped at that, and I couldn't help but let loose a slight chuckle at seeing his face when he was proven to be wrong.

So when Kakashi-sensei gave me the go ahead, I started to explain chakra to my two less informed teammates. "Chakra is the elemental life energy that all ninjas use to perform jutsu. It is the source of any ninja's power. There are two forms of chakra. The first one is physical energy which is what the body produces on its own. The other form is spiritual energy which is strengthened by training and your own experience. Both physical and spiritual energies have to be brought together in the right amounts to perform different jutsu. And lastly, the hand signs that you form focus and unleash that molded chakra."

When I could see Naruto and Sasuke's confused faces, more Naruto than Sasuke, I decided to explain it further. "It's kind of like cooking. You need the right amounts of different ingredients to create something, but the way you cut and cook things is going to determine what meal you get. If you don't do everything right, it will come out as mush. But if everything is done right, you could have a nice bowl of homemade ramen in the end."

Kakashi-sensei seemed to smile at me. "Right on all points. Iruka-sensei really did have some excellent students."

"Thanks, sensei."

"What's the big deal with all the explanations? The whole point is the learn the jutsu, isn't it?" Naruto questioned, annoyed.

"Naruto is right for once." _Oh, how I wish I had something to record this moment._ "We're already using chakra energy in our jutsu."

"No," our Sensei disagreed. "You have not mastered this power. You've barely scratched the surface of it."

"It's like Akina just said. You have to draw on physical and spiritual energies and then combine them within yourself. But how do you do that? Each jutsu requires different types of chakra in different proportions. You must select and combine them in exactly the right way. Up to now, you've just guessed at the proportions, hoping they'd come out right."

Closing his one visible eye on his mostly covered face, Kakashi-sensei continued. "Even if you produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless. The jutsu won't work at all or it'll just be a joke. You waste so much energy that way. Then you're out of chakra and you can't fight at all. You're just a target."

Naruto seemed to be understanding the need to know about chakra now. "So how do we change that?"

"Training so hard that controlling your chakra becomes second nature. To achieve this goal, you must be ready to put your life on the line."

"What do we have to do?" Naruto asked. I had an idea, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise.

Chuckling to himself, Kakashi-sensei pointed up and answered, "Climb a tree."

"CLIMB A TREE?!" both Naruto and Sasuke exclaimed simultaneously. I smiled at their reactions, it was just priceless.

"That's right. But there's just one rule. No hands."

Both boys gave our Sensei a funny look, as if they were trying to picture how to do this. "You've gotta be kidding," Naruto dared.

"Am I? Let's see." Kakashi-sensei wove his hands into a sign with his left hand holding up two fingers together, and then using his left hand, he wraps it around the two fingers, also holding up two fingers on that hand.

With my sensor capabilities, I could practically feel the chakra in Kakashi's body being focused to his feet. In response to this, a tiny swirl of movement happened in a circle around Sensei's feet, the chakra itself being invisible to the naked eye. Then, with his crutches in tow, Kakashi-sensei proceeded to a tree not far from him.

When he put his foot against the tree, I could hear the boys gasp in surprise. There was our Sensei, walking up a tree!

"He's climbing!" Naruto says, amazed. "He's only using his feet!"

At this point now, Kakashi-sensei had reached a branch and was hanging upside down with his crutches. "Well, you get the idea. Focus the chakra toward the soles of your feet and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra."

A scoff from Sasuke was heard. "How does this help us fight—"

"It's the only way to fight him," Sensei interrupted. "That's the entire goal of this training. First, you learn to draw a precise amount of chakra to a precise point in your body. This is difficult, even for advanced ninja. This type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy. And the bottoms of the feet are the most difficult points to focus chakra."

Looking to all of us, Kakashi-sensei looked to see if we were following. I could almost swear that I saw an understanding glint in his eye when he glanced my way though. "Do you get the picture? If you can master this, you'll be able to master any jutsu. Well, theoretically. The second point is to learn to maintain your chakra levels. When a ninja is focused in battle, it's even harder to control and maintain his chakra levels, a deadly mistake."

I shuddered, knowing full well how this could go wrong.

"To avoid this, maintaining chakra must become second nature, effortless." He sighed once again as he seemed to realize that he was rambling on. "Well, I can talk about this all day but that won't advance your skills, will it? You need to apply the power of chakra through training."

Grasping three kunai in his one hand, he threw them towards the ground in front of the three of us on ground level. "Use the kunai knife to mark the tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands. Then, try to get past that mark the next time, and the next. At first, you'll need to run at the tree so your momentum can take you as high as possible until you're used to it. Ready?"

After grabbing the kunai in front of him, Naruto had a determined look on his face. "I'm more than ready! This is going to be no sweat, all the way, ya'know! Remember what you said, Sensei, I'm the one who's grown the most."

"You're definitely the one who talks the most," Kakashi-sensei replied. I let out a surprised chuckle at this remark. "Now, get focused and do it."

All of us, closed our eyes and focused. For me, it didn't take long to focus chakra to my feet and snap my eyes open to face the tree in front of where I stood.

"I got it!" Naruto exclaimed. "CHARGE!"

With that signal, all three of us ran towards our respective trees. Right away, I could see that Naruto didn't have enough chakra in his feet. As a result, he fell to the ground on his back and head. He squirmed a bit in pain, holding onto his injured head as he rolled around with tears in his eyes. I could also see that Sasuke had way too much chakra in his feet. This resulted in him being propelled off of the tree and he maneuvered quickly so that he could make a mark a fair distance up the tree.

I was having a much better time with my tree. I didn't falter in how much chakra I put in to my feet, and it was second nature. Once I reached the top of the tree, I looked down from the highest branch to see Sasuke and Naruto looking for me on the ground.

Did they really think I was not going to be that good?

"Hello down there!"

My shout caused all of the males of the team to look further up than they were expecting me to be, and I saw Naruto and Sasuke's eyes widen at how far I was up the tree. Kakashi-sensei seemed to know that I would be able to do this training easily.

"Well," Kakashi-sensei remarked as I jumped down to a branch closer to all of them, "looks like the female member of the squad has the most advanced chakra control. Well done, Akina."

I sweat dropped a little at his praise. "I've already had this training before so that I could control my chakra for medical ninjutsu. I have to be precise, or I could wind up hurting a patient from my wild chakra control."

Naruto didn't seem to mind that I had already done this training before. "Way to go, Akina! I always knew you were awesome, ya'know!" From his expression afterwards, I could tell that he didn't like being left behind, no matter how happy he was for me.

Sasuke just scoffed at me. I smirked, knowing that he hated being left behind as well. He was probably pouting inside his head. It made me want to giggle at how childish Sasuke could really be sometimes. But now wasn't the time to do that. I looked over to my Sensei and gave him a knowing look, hoping he was getting my message for how to motivate the boys into action and jumpstart their determination to get better.

"Well, not only does Akina understand chakra, she can control and maintain it as well. We spoke about someone becoming Hokage one day, didn't we? Seems Akina's got the best chance of that, wouldn't you say?" Naruto gave a disgruntled look up at that. "And as for the great Uchiha clan, maybe they're not so great after all."

Naruto and Sasuke both seemed to contemplate the words of Kakashi-sensei for a moment before they looked to each other. They each wore expressions that I can only describe as driven to be on top. They now had the right motivation and they had the added effect of having a rival to compete with and help them grow. I sometimes envied them of that relationship. I just wish they could be better friends outside of training and missions. Life would be simpler if they were able to do that. Maybe I should just force them into a room and make them stay there until they discuss the real reason why they were hard on each other.

"Alright!" Naruto revved himself up. "First, I'll match Sasuke. Then I'm going all the way to the top, ya'know!"

Smiling to myself, I went over to Kakashi-sensei as the boys really started their training. Sensei acknowledged my approach with a slight nod and then glanced my way. "Have you mastered the Water Walking chakra exercise as well?"

"Yes," I answered honestly. "I was required to master both before Mom would teach me anything about medical ninjutsu, and even that right now is restricted to being able to help with minor injuries and chakra exhaustion. So you should be thankful that I know what I do about chakra exhaustion, Mr. Sharingan."

Chuckling to himself, Kakashi-sensei at least had the decency to look sheepish.

At that moment though, my attention was caught on Naruto again. He was just crashing down from a fall again, but I could tell he was getting frustrated. The next second, he was about to throw a tantrum like a child. I thought my influence would change some of his petty tantrums into becoming extinct, but I guess I was wrong.

However, Naruto suddenly searched around the clearing until his eyes found where I was. As he made his way to my location, I smirked, already having an idea of what was coming next.

"Hey, Akina," Naruto whispered behind his hand. "You're good at this. How about some advice for your best friend? But please don't tell Sasuke I asked. Please, please!"

I smiled, already knowing that this is a new and improved Naruto. He was already keeping with our promise to get stronger. Knowing that he needed help was the first step, and being willing to ask someone was another big step forward in the right direction. Being able to see Naruto continue to grow into a fine young man and shinobi was something I would never get tired of in my life time.

And I couldn't wait to be by his side as he changes the world.


	12. The Land of Lost Hope

**Chapter 11**

The next day, Tazuna had to get back to work on the bridge that he claimed could help the entire country get out from under Gato's influence. I was left with guarding him since I could do the Tree Climbing and Water Walking exercises. Kakashi-sensei claimed that he had nothing he could teach me that would make a difference in the limited time we had before Zabuza might show up, so I was left disappointed in being told to watch the old man all day.

I was mostly fine with it, but it left me so bored. I had some Water Clones helping out the workers, but my own body couldn't do anything to help since I needed to be right here if anything happened. I yawned in my boredom, stretching my arms out above my head as I did.

"You always this lazy?" a familiar voice called.

I could feel a twitch in my eye as I looked over to see Tazuna himself carrying a beam to be used on another part of the bridge. _How dare he think I am lazy! What about the help my clones are providing?!_

He either didn't see my irritation, or chose to ignore it. "Where's that weird blond kid and the one with the attitude?"

I deflated a little before answering, "They're training by climbing trees with only their chakra to keep them up. It helps with chakra control."

"Too tough for you?" Tazuna scoffed.

If this man didn't stop, I was going to have to do something about his big mouth, client or not. I didn't like his impression of me, despite the fact that it was one of my dragon friends that helped to protect him while I helped Team 7 rescue our Sensei.

"No," I answered stiffly at first. Relaxing a little, I knew I shouldn't let my temper rile me up around someone I was meant to be guarding. "I already knew this training and the one that is beyond that for chakra control training. So now Sensei sent me to be your guard while you are continuing your efforts on the bridge."

"You're joking…"

 _This guy!_

I stopped thought when I saw one of the workers come towards Tazuna with a regretful expression on his face. From the conversation I was hearing and the look of outrage and disappointment coming from Tazuna, I knew that this man was quitting. I couldn't help but feel bad for Tazuna. He is the pioneer who is trying to pave the way for all of his people to gain their freedom back and have some hope light up their eyes again. I can imagine he has lost some friends along the way from this as well. As much as I felt bad for him though, I also couldn't help but feel proud of him, and I hoped that he felt that way about what he is building here. He definitely reminded me of another stubborn fellow that I know.

Since Tazuna was going to have us break for lunch, I quickly stood up to go join him. Before we left the bridge completely though, I focused my chakra and brought my hand in front of me. It was challenging, but after a few moments, I was able to bring in front of me a tiny ball of water from the air. I was beginning to grow frustrated with this training even if I knew it was important to help me with my manipulation and Flash Step.

I couldn't help but hope that Mom knew what she was doing in making me do this.

000000000000000000000000000000000000

 **Flashback…**

As I continued to watch both Naruto and Sasuke try to climb up the trees with just their feet and their chakra, I was growing restless. I wanted to train as well. I wanted to be stronger, and continue getting stronger alongside the two boys that I cared about. I wanted to be able to protect them.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hm?" He hummed as he turned his singular visible eye towards me. By this time, he had come back down to ground level and was observing the boys as they kept making marks on the tree to show how far up they could get. Now, he looked at me with curiosity at what I could be trying to ask him.

"Is there anything I could learn right now that I could learn in time before Zabuza potentially shows up again?"

Bringing his hand up to his mask covered chin in thought, I knew he was going through a list of ninjutsu and other techniques that I could try to learn and gauging whether the timeline matched up. "You said a week at most, correct?"

His tone didn't inspire confidence in me, but I nodded my head to confirm this.

"I do not think anything that I have to teach you could be done in one week only. I could teach you with more time, but for right now, it won't work. Instead, how about you guard Tazuna as he works on the bridge starting tomorrow?"

I deflated a little at his assessment. This was exactly what I didn't want to hear. While I knew that guarding the bridge builder was our mission's main objective, I didn't want to be sidelined in continuing to grow stronger like…

A thought just hit me, and I decided to act on it.

Biting my thumb to draw blood, I quickly performed the familiar hand signs and slammed my hand on the ground, gaining everyone's attention as I called out, "Summoning Jutsu!"

With a puff of smoke appearing before me, I stood up with the biggest smile on my face. I was waiting for the plume of smoke to dissipate, and when it did, it revealed one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen in my young life in this world: my Mom.

She stood before me with loving smile as she saw that I was the one to summon her, but she also knew that I would be the only one to summon her here. Her dark navy irises glowed with warmth and gazed down at me as everyone could now see her majesty with the smoke now cleared. Mom had hair similar to Sensei's in color, but hers reached down to the top of her calf as it flowed down her back uninterrupted. Her bangs reminded me of Hinata's straight cut, but hers were also straight cut along her cheeks as they slightly curled in to frame her face and they were separated in a center part from her hairline. She wore her normal clothes of a green sleeveless shirt with gold trimming (which reminded me of a Chinese qipao) and around her waist was a dark green sash. Completing her outfit, she wore dark pants that cinched 3/4 of the way down her calf with standard ninja sandals on her feet.

To me, she was the complete embodiment of a gorgeous Mom.

"It is so good to see you, Little One," Mom beamed to me.

"HEY!"

Glancing behind me, I could see Naruto looking at Mom with suspicion and surprise, but more of the latter than anything else. Sasuke was giving Mom a warm smile, which almost made Naruto gag on air when he saw it. I had to giggle internally at their interaction.

"Who the hell is this lady?" Naruto questioned loudly. "How did she get here? I thought you were summoning a dragon?!"

This time, I really did giggle and so did Mom.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself," Mom apologized. "My name is Sora of Mount Ryuumoto, and I am Akina's guardian. It is a pleasure to meet her Genin team."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Kakashi-sensei nodded his head to her since he couldn't bow easily with crutches. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, I'm the Jonin sensei in charge of overseeing Team 7." He gestured to the two boys now. "The blond is named Naruto Uzumaki, and the serious boy over there is Sasuke Uchiha."

Mom smiled at the three of them. "It is good to meet you all. And Sasuke, it is so good to see you again."

At the introduction, Naruto faltered in his suspicion. He looked over to Sasuke again to see that he was completely fine with Mom being here, to which his eye started twitching in irritation. I could tell he was trying to figure out why Sasuke, the normally stiff as a board guy, was looking at Mom with the affection he was.

"How the hell does Sasuke know who she is?"

"Naruto," Sensei reprimanded softly. "I'm sure if you let them explain, it will start to make sense and it will make things go faster if you stop questioning them every few seconds."

I giggled at Naruto's grumbles. "Mom was visiting one day and Sasuke came in unexpectedly, so he was introduced to her right then. He's also been with me to Mount Ryuumoto a couple of times."

"Then why hadn't I been with you before?" he grumbled again.

 _Is he jealous?_

"The fault would be mine in this," Mom replied for me. "I did not allow Akina to tell anyone about the dragons and Mount Ryuumoto unless they already knew about it, which is also a very short list. Only the Hokage and a few Jonin knew about Mount Ryuumoto, but many in Konoha did remember about Tsubasa and her dragon summons. I was Tsubasa's partner in battle, so after she passed, Akina came to live with my family."

Naruto seemed to be appeased a little, but not happy.

"I didn't mean to keep it secret, Naruto," I began apologizing to my best friend. "It was by accident that Sasuke even knew about it all. But you've known for a little while now, right?"

Sighing, Naruto seemed to find no fault in my explanation, so he nodded at me. "I guess it's fine. I just wish I had known sooner, ya'know?"

Giving Naruto a soft smile of understanding, I nodded to him before turning to Mom.

"Is there some training that I could do with you, Mom? I need to learn something that can improve my skills within a week at most as far as time goes. We have an enemy threatening our client that could return at any time, but at most, he will be back in a week. It also needs to be something that I could do while watching our client as he finishes his bridge, on the off chance that an attack to his life were to happen. Do you have anything in mind for me?"

Mom seemed to contemplate something for a moment. I was really hoping that she did have something though. She knew that I wanted to be more of a combat medic, so I assumed she was thinking of something I could use in a fight more so than a medical ninjutsu that would help me at the moment. Anything I could train in to help get stronger and be able to support my teammates and friends would be well worth my time as I would be sent to guard Tazuna.

A smile started to melt away the contemplative look on Mom's face as she glanced back up to meet my eyes. "I think I have just the right training in mind for you, Little One."

She then turned her gaze over to the rest of Team 7. "This training will involve explaining some clan secrets, so I will be leading her a little further from here. After I have finished, she will come back to this location. Is that favorable to you?"

With a nod from Kakashi-sensei, Mom steered me over to the next clearing of trees to explain how this training would help me improve my ability to use the Flash Step.

 **End Flashback**

000000000000000000000000000000000000

I sighed in exasperation as I tried to continue to bring out water from the vapor in the air. The point was to be able to improve my ability to draw on the power of the water in the atmosphere. This way I could then begin to detect water instantaneously so that I could use my manipulation to travel easier and faster with the Flash Step. Since this technique relied heavily on my own ability to sense water all around me and my mastery of my element for the Flash Step, it was important that I improve this skill so that it would no longer tire me out after only a couple of times of using it. This training was to not only improve my mastery, but improve my stamina so I could perform the Flash Step many times without wasting chakra and tiring out.

At least, in theory.

So in a way, I was also using this training as a means to learn better chakra control with my chakra's elemental nature. I could practically hear Mom telling me how to better understand this training exercise.

 _"Water is the element of change. It is graceful, flexible, and its uses are numerous for both offense and defense. You must remember this, and feel for the life in the air, for water is in all living things. It is in the streams, trees, ground, and in the blood of living creatures as well. It is all around you. The trouble is in knowing how to find it and how to draw on it for your own purposes."_

This was why Mom wanted me to try to draw water from the air, since this was the hardest place to find water most of the time. It would be easier in the Land of Waves due to it being surrounded by the sea and frequently immersed in mist. Plus, this worked out for me to be able to improve on this skill in a week and work on it even longer after this mission as well. I can always continue to improve my ability to manipulate my chakra element, at least until I become a master.

So that was why people were giving me strange looks at the water I was pulling from the air and then releasing onto the ground as I walked with Tazuna on the streets of town.

"So where are we going?" I asked the old man.

"You want to eat tonight, don't cha?" he grumbled at me. "I got to pick up some things for dinner."

Nodding in understanding, I followed along with him as I glanced around the town. It was sad to see how people were depressed in the way they walked and carried themselves. I could even hear in the distance a man crying out about a thief and I saw a boy, running for his life with a loaf of bread in his hand, slipping into an alley just ahead of us. There were children on the sides of the street with rags on their bodies, looking malnourished and their eyes shone with such hopelessness, that I wanted to just give them a big hug and try to make things better for them.

"Here we are," Tazuna remarked, catching my attention.

We stepped into what looked like a market, but upon entering, I could see the reality of what it really was. It was a store that had barely anything. Some of the selections had only a single piece to choose from, and the prices were higher than I had ever seen before.

Suddenly, I had a feeling that someone was behind me, and his presence didn't feel friendly at all as it got closer to me. Without thinking, I swung around with my leg raised high and yelled the first thing that came to mind with an older man approaching a young girl.

"Get lost, pervert!"

This resulted in the man losing his footing as he tumbled down to the floor in a spiral from my roundhouse kick. I didn't look to him in sympathy as I did with the children earlier as he hit the ground and immediately lost consciousness.

"Wow," Tazuna exclaimed, surprised. We had just left the market after quickly paying for everything despite the interruption to our shopping. "You really surprised me back there. Girls around here don't fight like that."

I huffed for a second. "Everyone should be able to defend themselves from perverts, or anyone trying to harm them, not just girls."

Just as suddenly, I felt another presence behind me again, and then felt a small hand grab my clothes right on my behind. My first reaction was to turn and kick again, but I didn't feel any ill intentions from the presence, so I just turned around to give this person a piece of my mind on where to touch someone.

I was surprised to see that it was one of the children I had seen earlier who had gotten my attention. I could tell the boy was hungry as he lifted his hands in front of him in a begging gesture towards me and smiled so warmly.

"Please."

My heart wanted to break. This little boy was asking me for some food. I wanted to take away his hunger pains, and make sure that he always had food. I wanted to be able to give him all the assurance that he needed that today, tomorrow, and far into the future, he would be okay and well-fed. But I couldn't do that, and I hated that I couldn't guarantee that for him.

Instead, I rummaged in my bag for some of the snacks I knew I carried around with me in case Naruto or Sasuke needed a quick something. I found some fruit bars and a couple rice balls in my bag which I carefully gave to him. He looked so thrilled to see so much food.

"Aw, thank you!"

Smiling as softly as I could, I nodded to him. "Be sure to share some of it with your friends."

Nodding excitedly, he turned tail and ran as quickly as his small legs could carry him. He was heading towards friends who were not too far away by the sides of the building where I had seen them earlier. As I saw this, I felt tears prickle at the edges of my eyes.

Trying to wipe them away before they could fall, Tazuna stepped closer. "This is how it's been since Gato came here. The children suffer, and the adults are afraid to stand up to him. They've lost all hope. That's why we have to finish the bridge. It will bring commerce and trade. But much more importantly, that bridge is a symbol of courage. We must restore the spirit of our people."

Hearing this, reminded me of someone I once knew who also had a face filled with hopelessness long ago. I remember wanting to help him too, so I can understand how Tazuna was feeling now.

"When the bridge is finished, people will start to believe again. They'll believe that they can live with dignity. We can't let Gato stop us," Tazuna finished.

His message stuck in my head now, I raised my hand again in front of my face. I concentrated so hard, that I feared I might have a migraine latter. I swiped my hand through the air and balled my hand into a fist. A cold draft emanated from my hand as I could feel something take shape within my shaking fist. Turning to Tazuna, I held out my hand to him as he glanced at me with curiosity. Opening my hand, I revealed an ice sculpture shaped in the form of a flower. In the middle of the flower were upright petals which curled together closed, and three more petals sprang out from the ones in the middle, creating a triangle like shape. Tazuna looked to me with wonder.

"This is an iris flower. I've been told by a classmate that flowers have many different meanings to convey to the one you are giving them to." Tazuna still looked confused, so I clarified. "The iris means wisdom, valor, faith, and most importantly, it means hope. I want to give some more hope to you."

Now smiling at the gesture, Tazuna took the icy sculpture in his hands and observed it from all sides with care. Looking back to me after his inspection, his eyes held a sincere gratitude within their irises. "Thank you."

I nodded, and couldn't help but hope that the boys better be working their butts off in their training, because we just had to help these people.

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It was now dinner time, and I think my teammates believe they are pigs. How else would one rationally explain why they were eating so much food so fast? I was starting to get annoyed with the whole thing, but Tazuna seemed greatly amused by all of it.

"Hahaha! Hey, this is fantastic," he laughed. "It's been ages since we've had so many guests around our table."

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke were stuffing their faces with an enormous amount of food, and neither of them were showing any table manners in this whole fiasco. I was starting to get even more annoyed with each passing bite from them.

 **"I want some more!"**

Both of the two pigs had said this at the same time!

 _So this was a competition between them_ , I thought with even more annoyance.

Sasuke and Naruto gave each other glares that seemed to meet with electricity flying between them, but they both cut off short. They both turned blue and quickly swiveled around to proceed to throw up on the floor.

 _THAT'S IT!_

I lean over the table slightly and punch both of the boys on their heads, resulting in matching groans from both disgruntled boys. "IDIOTS! Stop eating so much if you're going to do that! You are both cleaning that up!"

Sasuke stopped rubbing the sore spot on his head and wiped at his mouth. "I have to eat."

Now Naruto looked over as well. "And I have to eat more than him. It's the only possible way I'll get strong enough to beat him."

"That's true," Kakashi-sensei agreed. "But puking won't help you."

"The last thing you idiots need to do is have some sort of bulimia problem!" I almost growled at both knuckleheads. "SO STOP THROWING UP AND WASTING FOOD! **GOT IT?!** "

Both boys seemed petrified of me now, but they both nodded and practically ran to get towels for the mess. Once they were done with that, they sat back down and ate normally until they were full.

After dinner, Tsunami had told me to take a break from washing dishes, and was going to finish them up for me. Reluctantly, I had agreed, but now I was standing awkwardly in the corner of the room. I stepped up onto the upper part of the floor so I could get around Kakashi-sensei and Naruto to go back to my seat, but then a picture frame caught my eye.

I looked at it curiously. It was all of Tazuna's family, but there was something about the picture that was off. Everyone in the picture seemed to be smiling, even Inari, but that wasn't what was strange about it. The corner of it was torn off. Despite that, I could still see the figure of someone who was standing behind a smiling Tsunami with his hand ruffling the hair on Inari's head.

Naruto must have noticed that I was standing there, because he asked, "Akina, what is that?"

I turned to answer, but then I noticed everyone looking at me now, and I began to feel uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," I directed towards Tazuna, "I didn't mean to pry. I was just wondering about the picture."

"About the torn part of it, right Akina?" Naruto asked.

The air in the room tensed up as I could feel the family's negative emotions as though they were swarming all around us. I really hadn't meant to draw attention to it, and I know that Naruto didn't mean anything by asking either. He was just always curious.

"It's my husband," Tsunami said sadly.

"They used to call him a hero in this land," Tazuna looked down with what looked like regret in his eyes.

From beside Sasuke, I could see Inari get down from his chair. I had a feeling that this wasn't something he wanted to hear. I had an idea of what was going through his mind if I was right about everyone's feelings right now. The man in the picture caused the family to feel sad and regretful.

Hearing her son walking away, Tsunami called out to him. "Inari, where are you going?"

Ignoring his mother, Inari simply went to the door and walked away as he closed it shut behind him. Tsunami appeared worried about him, and started to go after her son. Before she left the room, she looked over her shoulder at Tazuna. "Father, you can't talk about him like that in front of Inari, you know that!"

Regretfully glancing over to Tazuna, I tried to apologize. "I'm sorry, Tazuna. I didn't mean to upset Inari like that."

"Hmm," Kakashi-sensei chimed in. "Is there a story behind this?"

"He wasn't his real father," Tazuna replied. "He came into our family later, and he brought so much happiness. He and Inari were very close."

Naruto seemed to grow interested in the story. I could understand why he would be interested as well. This was starting to sound a lot like how he and Iruka are.

"In those days, Inari used to laugh all the time," the bridge builder began to shake with so much emotion. "But then, all that ended."

Tears began to hit the table, and as I stood by Naruto now, I wanted to look away. However, I knew that I couldn't, because this man was showing us something important, and I would not dismiss that in favor of my own feelings. That would be so selfish of me.

"He never laughs or smiles anymore, ever since the day everything changed. The word courage was stolen from this island. We were left feeling powerless, hopeless, and Inari suffered the most ever since it happened."

"Tell us," Kakashi-sensei urged him on. "What happened to Inari?"

Tazuna wiped his eyes as he started his tale for us all. "First you need to know about the man, his father: the man who taught us the word courage, who was a hero in this land."

"A hero," Naruto seemed surprised, "really?"

I placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder as I sat beside him once again at the corner of the table now. He was someone who always wanted to be a hero to others, and he was striving so hard to do that by becoming Hokage. Naruto wanted to matter to people and be treated with the same respect that a hero is given.

"You can decide that for yourself," Tazuna replied to Naruto's question. "He came here about three years ago. Inari was having trouble with some older boys who liked to bully him. They had taken his dog away from him and thrown him into the water. But Inari froze in fear when he was given the opportunity to save him because he didn't know how to swim. Interestingly enough, at that exact moment, Pooch figured out how to dog paddle."

 _I'm not sure that is actually very interesting considering Inari was probably trying to not drown at the time_ , I thought with a little concern for the boy, despite knowing he is okay.

"It wasn't long after this that Inari went underwater and had fallen unconscious," the bridge builder continued. "And when Inari woke up next, he discovered that he had been saved from drowning. That day, he taught Inari an important lesson: live your life so you have nothing to regret. If you care about something, protect it. No matter how tough, no matter how sad, you've got to keep trying. Even if you have to put your life on the line, protect it with both arms, never give in."

Smiling at the lesson from that day, I could completely understand what this man meant by his words. It was the same way I felt about my friends and family. I would protect them with everything I had in me, never stopping until they are safe.

"His name was Kaiza. A simple fisherman who'd come here from another land to follow his dreams. After that, Inari and Kaiza were inseparable. The boy had never known his real father, so you can imagine what it meant to him to have Kaiza in his life. He looked up to him and followed in his footsteps, like a real father and son. Kaiza spent more and more time with us, until he naturally became a member of our family."

Naruto looked on with a new fire in his eyes. I could tell that this man was someone he wanted to be like now.

"And then when this town needed him, he became something more. A flood had threatened the village and we could not get the flood gates to close. The only way to do so would have been to have someone swim to the opposite side with a line so that the gates could be pulled closed, despite the flood waters creating a very strong current to rush by the gates. Kaiza volunteered to be that man. He swam through the current with strength and determination until he finally reached the gates and he tied the line until everyone was able to close the flood gates, saving the lower district from flooding. From that time on, Kaiza was considered a hero in this land. He taught us all the meaning of courage, and Inari was so proud to be his son."

Tazuna suddenly grew somber. "But it wasn't long after that Gato showed up and took over. He terrorized the whole village. Only Kaiza stood up to him. Gato couldn't have a local hero getting in his way. It took his whole gang to stop one man. They had to shatter the bones in his arms to stop him, but it soon got worse. Gato had a public viewing of him the next morning. He wanted people to know what would happen to anyone who disturbed his order. Unfortunately, Inari was there among the crowd when they publically executed Kaiza."

 _That poor kid… To see his Dad executed like that…_

"Since then, Inari has changed," Tazuna admitted with a sad expression on his face. "So did Tsunami, and all our people. We lost our will."

A fire growing in my gut, I wanted to prove something. From the look on Naruto's face, I could tell he did as well. We both got out of our seats, but Naruto fell down almost immediately after getting up. I kneeled down to help him up again.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, surprised.

"You better take the day off," Kakashi-sensei instructed. "No more training. You've used too much chakra. If you push any harder, it could kill you."

"Do you really have so little faith in me, Kakashi-sensei?" I was beginning to think that he doubted my skills as a medic. At the very least, I could call on Mom to heal him up if I couldn't do it.

Naruto's determined voice interrupted my thoughts though. "I'm gonna prove it."

Smiling, I nudged Naruto a little from his place on the ground. "You mean we are." I received a nod from my best friend at the amendment to his statement.

"Prove what?" Tazuna questioned.

"Akina and I will prove that it's true," Naruto replied as he shakily got up from the floor. "That in this world, there are real heroes."

What I found funny was that Naruto thought he had to prove he was a real hero. To me, he already was. He was Naruto Uzumaki, my best friend, and a real hero of this world.

 **Author's Note**

So I just wanted to thank everyone who has Favorited and Followed both this story and me as well. It really means a lot to see such a wonderful reaction to this story that I have been dreaming of writing. I'm glad you all like it.

Also, to my reviewers, thanks so much for your feedback. I love reading them, and it just gives me that much more motivation to get back to writing.

One last thing: if you want to see some pictures that I have of what the characters look like, go to DeviantArt. Here is my account name: Moonlight-Wolf16. Find my account and have a look. I have pictures of Akina, Tsubasa, Sora, Ichigo, Nami, and Ryuujin up so far. There will be more on the way, so check them out!

Thanks to all of you again! I hope you liked this chapter :)


	13. Those Who are Precious

**Chapter 12 – Those Who are Precious**

 _I ran through a crowded marketplace, trying to avoid looking at everyone and anyone who might recognize me. I knew that this was dangerous. I could be caught at any moment, and then it would be all over for me. I didn't want to be here._

 _Suddenly, I tripped over someone's feet, crashing to the ground by a fruit seller. I quickly tried to get up, but something caused me to freeze in fear. I could tell that the seller was yelling at me, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from something behind the seller of the stand._

 _It was a poster._

 _A wanted poster with my face on it._

 _Stumbling to my feet, I ran even faster than I knew I could run. I had to get away from the Hidden Mist. FAST!_

 _I pushed people left and right to get out of here, but I didn't even know if I was going in the right direction. I had never been here before, and for very good reason too. If I was caught by anyone who recognized me, then I would be executed._

 _At the edge of my sensory field, I could feel a large chakra source making its way towards me, and I grew even more frightened. From the size of the chakra, it could easily be a Jonin who was on my tail. And no sooner had I thought that, and I heard something that made a shiver go down my back._

 _"Stop that girl!"_

 _I pumped my arms faster, willing my legs to go for all they were worth. I can't be caught here! I don't want to die!_

 _Suddenly, I was yanked from the left side by someone and pulled into a small alley just beyond yet another market stand. Not a second later, I saw a shinobi race by the entrance of the alley and keep going, probably assuming I had disappeared in the crowd ahead. I waited until I could no longer feel the chakra signature in the area before I sighed in relief and turned to see who had saved me._

 _Before me was a kid. A young boy who had shoulder-length raven hair, and the biggest brown eyes set in a face that was pretty enough to belong to a girl. He had on a faded blue kimono shirt, dark pinstriped pants, and simple sandals. He didn't look super impressive, and not much older than me, but he was my savior._

 _"Thank you."_

 _Smiling softly at me, he ruffled my white hair a little. "It was my pleasure. I couldn't let those mean, old shinobi get a beautiful princess."_

 _I blushed at the compliment. I didn't think that I was beautiful, and I most certainly wasn't a princess, but I would take the compliment. Looking up at him, I was hesitant to ask for more help, but something about his face made me want to trust him._

 _"Do you know how to get out of the village?"_

 _"You mean to the old Morimoto estate?"_

 _I tensed, thinking that he might just turn me in. He chuckled a little and placed a reassuring hand on my small shoulder. "I won't hurt you, little one. Nor will I turn you in, that would be hypocritical of me."_

 _I wondered what he meant, but before I could ask, he had turned around and was walking away from me. I was confused at first until he stopped to look back and beckon me to follow. Thinking he was helping me find my way home, I followed._

 _Over time, I relaxed as he talked to me more along the way. We talked about small things like our favorite foods until we made it out of the village's borders. That was when we really talked about who we were. The boy told me that he and his mother were reported to have Kekkei Genkai when he was younger, and the Hidden Mist tried to kill them both for it. He was the only survivor of that encounter, and now he was staying with someone who looked after him and kept his Kekkei Genkai secret. I grew to appreciate the boy a bit more, since I understood his pain a bit._

 _"So why were you in the village in the first place," he asked me. "I would think that you would stay as far away from here as possible."_

 _Looking down in sadness, I remembered why I was here. "It was a prank. Where I'm staying right now, some of the grownups and their kids don't like me very much. I was walking home after having dinner at a family friend's house when some bullies caught me. Simply because of what day it was, I was shoved around and I hit my head at one point. I must have passed out because when I woke up again, I was in the village to find that it was now morning."_

 _"Well, yesterday was September 8th, so why was that day so special?"_

 _"It's the anniversary of the day my clan was slaughtered, and it's been one year since many of us were attacked while we came to honor the Morimoto clan at the estate."_

 _"Is this the first time you will have been here since it happened?"_

 _I nodded, unable to trust my voice at the moment. We were quiet for a little while after that. I didn't want this boy to think I was a baby, but I couldn't hold in my tears as they spilled over my cheeks._

 _"It's my fault," I muttered._

 _"What is?" he asked._

 _"All of those that lost their lives a year ago… it's my fault… the Hidden Mist was after me…"_

 _For a moment, the boy didn't say anything. Then he asked me to tell him the story. So I told him everything. I told him all of it. I told him how our ceremony was interrupted, how many of the elders died that day, how my family got in the way of some of the ninja, how more of those there died trying to help us get to safety, and of how I was helpless to do anything. I was the one they had wanted dead, and it was my fault so many died instead of me._

 _"I was the monster that the Hidden Mist wanted to exterminate. Instead, I was the monster that lived while so many didn't make it home to their families… I should have died that day…"_

 _Silence echoed for what seemed to be forever. I kept my head down, not wanting to see eyes filled with hate for being weak. I did not want to see that in his eyes._

 _"You survived."_

 _Surprise hit me hard, and I locked onto his eyes without meaning to. Empathy, sadness, understanding, and hope were in the brown irises of this boy. All of that was directed my way._

 _"It isn't something to be ashamed of."_

 _I suddenly grew angry at this statement. "Then what am I supposed to do!? Be happy that I'm alive while they are DEAD!?"_

 _Despite my anger, this boy just smiled at me. "Then live on for them. Take on the spirit of those who died for you, and continue to live because they wanted you to live on. It was what they died for, so you must make it your mission to live a good life. Live on, and protect what is precious to you so that it doesn't happen again. Get stronger! Learn to protect everyone you love with your own strength!"_

 _He placed his hand on my shoulder once more, and gazed at me with determination in his eyes. I could almost feel him peering into my soul as he gave me his final thoughts._

 _"No amount of guilt can change the past, so don't let it crush your beautiful spirit. Instead, wear your tragedies as armor so that you will be stronger when you need to protect those who are precious to you."_

 _This boy…_

 _I had no words for how thankful I was to him._

 _His words were something that I would keep in close to my heart. This was what I wanted and would choose to believe in. I would live on for them and continue to honor them with my life that they protected. And I would never let someone who was precious to me die, never again._

 _"Thank you…"_

 _The boy's smile only grew as he ruffled my hair one last time. "You will be a strong warrior, princess. I can tell."_

 _I was about to tell him I'm not a princess again when I realized that the scenery around us was familiar. We were right before the gates of the Morimoto estate. Just ahead, I could see the large seal that brought me here the last time and I ran towards it. In theory, I could flare my chakra into the seal and Mom would be able to sense it on Mount Ryuumoto since she was the one who drew this particular seal. She could then reverse-summon me from this seal since I had yet to sign the Summoning Contract of the Dragons._

 _"Is this how you will get home?"_

 _I peered over my shoulder to see the boy curiously gazing at the seals within this circle. I will admit, even without knowing what it all meant, it was beautiful to look at. I could see why it might pique the curiosity of some._

 _"I just have to channel some chakra into it, and someone from the other side will help me get home," I said as I filtered my chakra in, watching as it gently glided across the lettering of the seals, turning it blue in color. When I saw a white light streaming in through the seals, I knew that Mom had gotten my message and she would reverse-summon me shortly._

 _Turning around, I smiled to the boy I had grown to like over the time he had helped me. "I guess I have to say good-bye…"_

 _Searching in my head, I realize that I had been so rude. Here this boy knew my name, but I had neglected to ask for his. "My name is Akina Morimoto. Thank you for saving me! Can I ask for your name?"_

 _With the light growing more intense around the seal, I knew that time was short. The boy must have realized this as well because he skipped the teasing that I was sure he wanted to say. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Akina. I was happy to save you and meet a new friend. My name is…"_

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Opening my eyes suddenly, I saw the wooden ceiling of Tazuna's home. Something wet was on my cheek, and I went to wipe it. That was when I realized that it was a tear rolling down my face. I smiled though despite the tear.

I hadn't dreamed about that boy in a long time. Seeing that memory was much better than the nightmares I had been having, so I was thankful for it. I would always be thankful to the boy who saved me as well. He gave me a dream to strive for, and he gave it to me when I needed it most: at a time when I thought I had no reason to be here in this world.

I would protect everyone precious to me.

Thinking along those lines, I looked around the room. I could see that Sasuke and Sensei had gotten up already. Sasuke's sleeping bag was nicely rolled up and sitting in the corner while Kakashi-sensei's was rolled up messily and seemed to have been tossed in the general direction of the corner. I had no doubt that he would fix it later, but I looked to the last sleeping bag was still out.

Naruto's sleeping bag.

I had unrolled it last night, hoping that Naruto would use it, but I see that he never made it back to Tazuna's house like I had. _Typical Naruto, always working harder than everyone else…_

But he wouldn't be Naruto if he didn't.

Instead of laying down, I decided to get up so that I could go see everyone else. I quickly put on my ninja gear instead of my pajamas and went downstairs.

"Good morning, everyone," I greeted those who were at the table to have breakfast. I couldn't help but yawn loudly as I stretched my hands above my head as I made my way to an empty seat at the table. I looked up to see Tsunami setting some food in front of me, so I thanked her quietly.

"Naruto is not here," Tazuna interrupted my thoughts. "Looks like he was out all night again."

I nodded in response. Naruto and I had spent the last two nights training so that we could prove to Inari that heroes really did exist. We were determined that we were going to defeat Gato and help restore the hope that the Land of Waves had lost. Last night, I had decided that I wanted to sleep on a real bed instead of the forest floor like I did the night before. So I told Naruto that we should head in before we both fell asleep again, but he refused.

"I tried to get him to come back with me to sleep in a real bed, but he said that he had to train some more before he did that," I replied to Tazuna's unspoken question as he gave me a curious look. "He told me to go ahead of him and that he would be back shortly, but I guess he never did return to sleep."

"Well, I certainly hope that he's okay," Tsunami voiced her concern. "A child spending the night in the woods alone…"

Kakashi-sensei interrupted her train of thought. "There's nothing to worry about. Naruto is a goofy-kid, but he's also a full-fledged ninja. He can handle himself."

"Naruto is such a loser." I looked over to Sasuke with a displeased look directed at him. He knew that I didn't like it when he was insulting Naruto. "He's probably lying out there dead somewhere."

"Sasuke," I warned him.

Scoffing, Sasuke got up from his chair. He was almost to the door before he stopped. "I'm going for a walk." He then closed the door behind him, and the room was quiet until everyone went back to eating breakfast.

After seeing that Sasuke had finished his meal, I couldn't help but smirk at his behavior.

 _You big softy, you're finally warming up to Naruto._

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 **Naruto POV**

Akina's not going to be happy.

I slept in the woods again.

At least, that's what I realized had happened when I felt a hand shake my shoulder. The person was trying to get me to wake up, but I was so sleepy. _Oh, well._

I blearily opened my eyes. Hearing the sounds of the forest, I became aware of the world around me as I saw a blurry outline of a person wearing pink. Deciding that I couldn't put it off anymore, I sat up. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I glanced at the person next to me without really looking.

"Who the heck are you?" I asked. I was startled when my vision finally cleared and I say that I was actually talking to a beautiful girl. She smiled at me, despite my question. "Uh, uh, I mean, hi there."

I blushed at my stumbled words. _Try to not be weird in front of a pretty lady!_

"Where did you come from? You know, what are you doing out here and all that?"

"I'm collecting herbs," she answered simply.

"Herbs?" I wasn't expecting that.

Again, the lady smiled at me. "Yes, that's right. They're for treating illnesses and healing wounds."

I smiled a little, thinking of Akina and of how she must do things like collecting herbs as well near the Leaf Village. So I decided to help her out a bit, thinking that this must take a lot of time to do alone. In response, the lady smiled and thanked me for offering to help.

After helping her pick some flowers for about 30 minutes or so, I decided to talk to this mysterious lady again. "You start work early, huh, sis?"

"I like it early. It's calm," she replied. _I guess I can understand that._ "But I didn't think I'd find anyone sleeping out here in the woods."

Chuckling a little, I smiled really big at her. I knew that Akina would be proud of how far I've come, but she wouldn't have wanted me to sleep in the woods. She just didn't think it was the best idea, which is what this lady seemed to think as well.

"I'm training!"

The lady seemed surprised. "So are you a ninja? Because I noticed that headband you're wearing… Or are you just making a fashion statement?"

Blushing a little more at the fact that someone noticed I was wearing my headband, I was also impressed with her noticing. "You noticed that? Only super cool ninja can wear these."

"Oh, really. I see," she answered, seeming to be interested. "That's very impressive."

I laughed at her compliment, happy to get it from someone who didn't look down at me with hatred. Akina would do that too, but she was my best friend, it was a little different. I always knew that she would have my back and give me compliments when I did something cool.

"But does that mean you're training for something dangerous?" the lady wanted to know.

Wanting to look even cooler to this lady, I bragged a little. "I'm just developing my skills, so I can get stronger!"

"You seem very strong now. Isn't that enough?"

"No, no. I need to get stronger and stronger. I have to keep practicing."

Narrowing her eyes at me in what seemed to be curiosity, the lady asked me a question. "Oh, so why is it so important?"

"So I can become the best ninja in my village, and everyone will know who I am. And they'll all respect me. Plus, I made a promise to someone that I would get stronger with them. There's also a certain person, a kid, that I have something to prove something to."

"So are you doing it for these certain people? Or are you doing all this training for yourself?"

"Uh… huh?" I didn't get what she was asking.

My confused face must have been hilarious, because the lady started to chuckle at me. I couldn't let someone laugh at me though. "What are you laughing about? What's so funny?"

Chuckling some more, she calmed herself before looking at me again. "Is there someone who's precious to you?"

"Someone who…" _Akina_ , I immediately thought, but then I backtracked. "What are you saying, sis? What do you mean 'precious'?"

My question seemed to make the lady think a bit. She got this far out look in her eyes, like as if she was pulling up a memory from her head. It made me wonder though at her thoughtful look.

 _What's she thinking?_

"You see, when a person has something precious that they want to protect, then they become genuinely strong."

Her answer startled me. But I had to admit, it made me think a little.

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 **Flashback…**

"A flood had threatened the village and we could not get the flood gates to close. The only way to do so would have been to have someone swim to the opposite side with a line so that the gates could be pulled closed, despite the flood waters creating a very strong current to rush by the gates. Kaiza volunteered to be that man. He swam through the current with strength and determination until he finally reached the gates and he tied the line until everyone was able to close the flood gates, saving the lower district from flooding. From that time on, Kaiza was considered a hero in this land," Tazuna told us of Kaiza.

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"I will not allow my comrades to die. Trust me." Kakashi-sensei looked back at us with his signature eye smile, telling us that everything would be okay in the end.

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Ducking my head in at Iruka-sensei's cry, I heard a loud sound that made my stomach twist and turn. Not feeling any pain, I looked back to see my sensei. He had protected me from the large shuriken, allowing himself to be hit by it in the back instead.

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"If you ever lay a hand on my sensei or best friend again, I'll kill you!" I growled at Mizuki.

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"I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY BEST FRIEND!"

I glanced up after a rock had hit just above my eye to see the silhouette of someone familiar to me. White hair that was kept in high pig tails let me know immediately that it was Akina. Her arms were spread wide as she stood in front of me, with what I assumed to be a glare of untold power since the kids who were bullying me went extremely pale in the face.

I couldn't help but think that she was so cool and strong.

 **End Flashback**

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I nodded my head to the lady. "Yeah, I hear you. I know exactly what you're saying."

Smiling at me some more, the lady picked up her basket of herbs we had collected and stood up from the ground we had been seated on. It looked like she was about to walk away, but then she waited for a moment. "You will get strong, very strong."

I smiled and chuckled a little as my response, thankful for her compliment.

"Good-bye. We'll meet again some time." She started walking away this time, and I thought she would just keep walking, but she didn't. She stopped short at one point, at the edge of the clearing, but didn't turn around.

"Oh! By the way… I'm a boy."

My mind was blank for a few seconds…

 _WAH! NO WAY! HE'S ALMOST AS PRETTY AS AKINA!_

I kept trying to wrap my head around it as I folded my arms in front of me. By this time, I knew that the la—I mean boy—was long gone, but I was still so confused right now. I groaned a little at how much this was making my head hurt. "Oh, I've seen a lot of weird things in my life before, but this one takes the cake."

 **BONK!**

Holding my now hurting head, I looked up to see Sasuke with a disgruntled look on his smug little face. "Hey! What did you do that for?!"

"You twerp."

"Cut it out!"

Folding his arms, Sasuke replied, "Did you just forget about breakfast? Akina's worried because of you. You're such a loser."

 _Oops! Sorry, Akina._

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 **Akina POV**

"Naruto?"

Kakashi-sensei and I were looking for the two idiots who decided to not come back for lunch, and worry all of us. After breakfast, I thought I would whip up some herbs that Tsunami had lying around and some from my own pack as well. Together, they would make some revitalizing tea that would help the boys regain some of their strength as well as promote the regeneration of their chakra stores. Then as an added bonus, Tsunami and I made lunch only to see that neither Sasuke nor Naruto came back to have any of the food we made.

Needless to say, I was very disgruntled with this outcome. So I decided to bring them some lunch in a basket and Kakashi-sensei said he would follow and see how far the two of them had come in their training. He had already seen how far I had progressed in my own training just after breakfast. I was glad that Kakashi-sensei knew that what I was training for was a clan secret and therefore didn't ask too many questions. However, considering the fact that Mom said I could trust him with those secrets, I let him know exactly what I was working on, and he was able to provide some useful tips on manipulating water.

After I mastered this, I could become the ninja version of a waterbender.

By this time, both Kakashi-sensei and I had made it back to the clearing where we originally started our training in, only to find that neither of the boys was here. I was beginning to grow worried again.

"Knowing those two, they could be anywhere," I voiced my thoughts to Sensei. "I wonder where they are."

I wasn't able to sense their chakra at the moment either. This could be due to the fact that Naruto had exhausted his chakra stores, in which case, I wouldn't be able to sense him at his current state. I was still not up to a level where I could fully sense those who were hiding their chakra on purpose or those who had little of it left. So I was beginning to hope that Naruto was not dying somewhere, and that Sasuke was only hiding his chakra.

A quiet whistling through the air alerted both Kakashi-sensei and I that there was something coming towards us. I reached for a kunai knife and prepared myself, but I didn't need to bother since it wasn't even close enough to hurt us. It only let us know that someone was here. So I glanced up towards the tree that the kunai had to of come from, only to see a spot of orange against the green of the leaves from the high branches. Lazily laying out on one of those branches was Naruto with his goofy grin that I both loved and hated in this moment.

"So, it looks like Naruto has been improving," I remarked in a slightly cheeky tone. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to see that Naruto was okay, but I wish he wouldn't worry me so much sometimes.

Naruto seemed to be satisfied with the impressed expressions on our faces, so he popped up onto his branch and placed his hands on his hips in a triumphant manner. Almost immediately, before he could make a sarcastic remark, Naruto's foot slipped and he lost his balance on the branch.

"Naruto!" I exclaimed, suddenly panicking. A fall from that distance could really hurt him if he couldn't catch himself.

"Uh, oh!" _That's all Kakashi-sensei had to say!?_

I readied myself to launch myself off the ground, thinking I would catch him and we could ricochet off of the tree. But before I could, Naruto appeared to suddenly hang upside down from one foot as he brought his other foot back to the tree's surface. He looked down at us with his grin that I had just decided that I hated right now, and laughed.

"Just kidding. You guys really fell for it!" he laughed at us.

I was frustrated now, and a little embarrassed that I had fallen for such a simple prank. "Why don't you come down here and I'll show you what I think of that prank?!"

 _Damn it, I was worried about you!_

"Why do I think this is going to end badly?" Kakashi-sensei sighed.

That phrase seemed to be the Pandora box to an unfortunate event as Naruto chuckled at us some more before something else happened. Suddenly, Naruto's feet didn't have enough chakra in them to stick to the tree, and this caused his feet to pop off of the bark as he began falling!

Despite myself, I screamed Naruto's name a little, surprised by the turn of events.

Luckily, I could now see that Sasuke was already moving up a tree. He moved up just far enough and pushed off of his tree which was not far from the one Naruto had just fallen from. Sasuke's momentum took him to the other tree and he caught Naruto's ankle in his hand. Now they looked like a bad case of monkeys in a barrel that decided to hang out on the tree instead, but I didn't care as I heaved a sigh of relief.

"You really are a total loser, Naruto."

Naruto growled at his savior, "Sasuke!"

"If I make it out of this without having a heart attack, it'll be a miracle…" I thought aloud.

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With the end of the twilight, night was now rolling in and encasing the world in darkness, hindered only by the sparkling stars. By this time, I would have expected all of us to be present for dinner, but there were still some of our party missing. I set the rest of the plates and bowls while Tsunami got the last food dish from the kitchen and set it on the table. As she did so, with my hands now empty, I sat down in my own chair and sighed a little.

 _I seem to be doing that a lot lately._

"Now both Naruto and Sasuke are late to a meal," I stated, concern for the boys clouding my tone. I looked over to Kakashi-sensei, about to ask if we should go search for them when I was interrupted by the squeak of a door opening.

Swiveling around in my chair, my gaze locked onto the doorway to see two forms coming in from the dark. Walking slowly into the warmth of the home were my two boys: Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto must have exhausted himself severely since he was letting Sasuke tow him into the house by having one arm slung over his shoulder. Sasuke also had a tired demeanor to him as he lugged in his teammate.

"What have you been up to? You look like something the cat dragged in," Tazuna questioned. I had to agree they looked a bit scuffed up and dirty from all of their hard work, but I wasn't going to tease them for trying to get stronger through training.

Naruto chuckled in response as he held his head up. "We both made it. We climbed all the way to the top."

I smirked at the two of them. Having the two of them training together was a great way to motivate them to push themselves and get stronger. While I knew they acted like they hated each other, I could see the wonderful beginnings of a friendship I would never be able to understand fully (given that I am not a boy). I really hoped that one day they would be able to become the best of friends, or even brothers.

"Good," Kakashi-sensei replied. "Akina has also completed as much training as she can with her water style. So now, we move on. Starting tomorrow, you're both bodyguards for Tazuna along with Akina."

Laughter rang out from Naruto in his excitement which couldn't be contained, even in his exhausted state. He yelled out in triumph and was so happy that he accidently knocked himself and Sasuke over to the ground, making them both land on their butts.

"Ugh," Sasuke complained. "You are such a loser."

Their childish behavior made everyone else in the room laugh. These two were just so fun to watch as they were almost trying to not be friends, and were definitely not succeeding. It made me smile even wider.

It didn't take long, once we all sat down, to finish dinner. As always, there were many compliments from the boys to both Tsunami and I about how good our cooking was. But I tried to get them to compliment Tsunami more. I don't think she had many opportunities to see her food appreciated by this many people, so I wanted her to be able to drink it all in.

Once we were all done though, Tazuna started to update everyone on how the bridge was going. Thanks to my clones, the bridge was right on schedule despite the few people who had quit on Tazuna. "In a few days, the bridge will be finished. I have you to thank for that."

 _So he can actually say thank you. Go figure._

"You've all done great," Tsunami agreed as she cleared away some dishes. "But you've still got to be careful."

We all nodded to reassure her that we would be. Tazuna, however, had a curious expression on his aged face. "I've been meaning to ask you this, but I haven't had the chance until now. Why did you stay and protect me even after you found out I lied to bring you here?"

Sensei was the one to answer him. "'Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage, but under the wing of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive'."

Everyone except me seemed to be confused on this. I decided to help out Kakashi-sensei a little since no one else understood. "It's a quote from the First Hokage Hashirama Senju. It basically means that if we would be cowards if we didn't want to help you get justice for your land. We ninja from the Hidden Leaf do know the difference between right and wrong, despite the reputation ninja have of being mercenaries who only care about getting a pay day. We won't abandon you to be oppressed by someone like Gato."

Receiving nods of agreement from my comrades, I knew that they all felt the same as I did on this matter. We would protect the people of this village. Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to understand our conviction for this mission and both smiled in thanks to us.

The sound of something dripping onto the table startled me into looking up at Inari. There was a wet spot below his head, and even though he covered his eyes with his bangs and hat, I could tell he was crying.

"But why?" he muttered dejectedly.

Naruto turned his gaze onto Inari. "Hm? What did you say?"

The boy slammed his hands onto the table as he rose from his seat. His eyes shone with anger and sadness. "All this stupid training is just a waste of time. Gato's got a whole army. They'll beat you down, and they'll destroy you!"

Throughout the room, we all were surprised at this outburst. Inari had always been quiet around us except for a moment here or there, but it was never like this.

"These cool things you all say, they don't mean anything. No matter what you do, the strong always win and the weak always lose!"

Facing away from the boy slightly, Naruto disagreed. "Just speak for yourself. It won't be like that for me. You got that?"

"Why don't you be quiet?!" Inari yelled at him. "Just looking at you makes me sick! You don't know anything about this country. You're just butting in! Always laughing and playing around, you don't know what it's like to suffer and be treated like dirt!"

I tensed at what Inari said. _This kid…_

"Listen to yourself whining and complaining like some sorry little victim!" Naruto surprised Inari by what he said. "You can whimper all day for all I care. You're nothing but a COWARD!"

"Naruto," Kakashi-sensei warned quietly.

Standing up with a grunt, Naruto began walking away from the table in anger. Inari was left standing there sobbing, while everyone else tried to diffuse the situation. I, however, couldn't stand it any longer, so I got up as well.

I know that my actions surprised a few people as I started to leave without a word. Before I was completely gone though, I stopped. An internal debate went on for a moment in my head on whether I should yell at the kid or be gentle with him. But I decided to go with the third option instead.

"Inari."

His sobbing stopped for a moment, and I could hear some holding their breath. They probably thought I was going to yell at him too.

"You're not the only one in pain right now," I could hear him gasp lightly. "And you're not the only one in this world who has suffered. Every single person in this house has suffered and lost someone precious to them, your Mother and Grandfather included. So the next time you want to place your pain above everyone else's, just remember that you will not get any sympathy from me for your disregard for other people."

With that said, I exited the room and didn't look back.

I went to go after Naruto, and I knew exactly where to look.

As I went upstairs, I went to the room all of Team 7 had been staying in to see that it was completely empty. Although, I knew this would be the case. I knew that whenever Naruto was upset or stressed, he always went somewhere high up. In Konoha, he had places like the water tower on top of his apartment building, the balcony from my apartment room, or on top of the Hokage faces in the mountain. No matter where he went, he liked high places.

So I moved to open the sliding glass door that lead to the balcony just outside of our room and looked up. I could see part of someone's feet jutting out from the edges of the rooftop. I hopped up to the roof to see Naruto sitting with his hands behind him as he leaned on them and gazed up at the stars. His face was hard and, at the same time, vacant of all emotion. I knew that he never wanted to cry about his past anymore.

But I refused to leave him like this.

There wasn't anything to say. I just sat down beside him, and leaned my head onto his shoulder, letting him physically know that I was there with him. It took a few seconds, but I soon felt him lean his own head against mine, silently thanking me for being there.

We didn't need to say anything. We both knew that we had each other's backs not only on the battlefield, but in life as well. No matter what life threw at us.

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"Can I talk to you?"

Kakashi-sensei's voice startled me awake. I was about to speak, when I remembered where I was, which happened to be the roof still. Gazing down beside me, I see that Naruto was snoozing away as if nothing had happened. We must have fallen asleep instead of going back down to the room.

But then, where was Kakashi-sensei?

I looked over the side of the roof to see Kakashi-sensei and Inari sitting at the edge of the dock surrounding the house. Now, I am not normally a person who likes to eavesdrop on people, but I was curious on what Kakashi-sensei had to say to this little kid, so I listened in.

"Naruto can be a little harsh sometimes," Sensei began. "But he doesn't hate you. Your Grandfather told us what happened to your father. You probably don't know this, but Naruto also grew up without a Father. In fact, he never knew either of his parents. And he didn't have a single friend in our village until Akina came into his life. And Akina also never had a proper friend her age since many of those her age were killed before she came to our village. One of the ninja we faced to protect your Grandfather was one of the people responsible for that."

Inari made a noise that told me he was surprised by this fact.

"Before Akina came to the village, Naruto had no one. Still, I've never seen him cry, sulk, or give up. He's always eager to jump in. He wants to be respected. That's his dream, and he'll put his life on the line for that—in a heartbeat. However, Akina is usually there to have his back now. My guess is he just got tired of crying and decided to do something about it. He began to lean on his best friend for support, and with her, he became stronger."

Kakashi-sensei's observational skills were always top notch, but even I never knew that Naruto counted on me so much. I always thought it was the other way around.

"Even though they're young and still learning, they both know what it means to be strong, like your father did. I think they both know better than any of us what you are going through. What Naruto told you earlier, as cruel as it sounded, he's probably told himself that a thousand times before. As far as what Akina told you, I think it was something she had told herself as well so that she could learn to appreciate those precious people she did have left. They both mean well."

From the silence, I could tell that their conversation was over. As quietly as I could, I scooped up Naruto and brought him back into the room so I could carefully put him in his sleeping bag. I gazed down at my best friend and could not contain the smile that made its way onto my face as I felt tears at the corner of my eyes.

I would always be there for him, just like he has been for me.

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 **Author's Note**

Were you all expecting the POV switch? I hope I surprised you! :3

Also, special shoutout to one of my favorite characters, Kushina Uzumaki! It was her birthday on the 10th. I would have loved to have been able to post this on that day, but it just wasn't ready. But Happy Belated Birthday to her!

Hope you all liked the chapter ;)

Let me know with some reviews, please.


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